The Demon Queen of END
by Meta Bunny
Summary: "Fine then, I will spare your friends' lives. But only on one condition." "What's the condition?" Lucy asked, not missing even a beat. E.N.D. merely cupped her face in his claws with absolute gentleness, despite how sharp the aforementioned claws were. He gazed passionately into her eyes for an uncertain amount of time before responding softly. "You must become my demon queen."
1. The King of All Demons

**Hey there, I would just like to inform readers that** **there may be some differences to cannon in this chapter. The changes are nothing too big, I hope (lol).** **Further notes will be in the author's note at the bottom. Enjoy.**

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Natsu and Gray were in what was quite possibly the hardest battle they have ever faced; both being exhausted after having to go through their own battles against some of the Nine Demon Gates of Tartaros, and now they stand against Mard Geer: the founder and guild master of Tartaros, and its supposed strongest member. To make matters worse, Acnologia, The Black Dragon of the Apocalypse, the same fearsome creature that was able to take on some of Fairy Tail's strongest mages without barely even a scratch, was overhead, held back only by Igneel.

And yet still, despite the absolute hopelessness of the situation, they still believed that they could win.

"Your brash confidence in your abilities infuriates Mard Geer." Mard Geer said, albeit he was still holding a smug smirk. "Do you not realise that I am Mard Geer Tartaros: The Underworld King; a definitive demon?" And with that said, Mard Geer outstretched his arm upwards, activating his Thorn Curse.

Immediately, approximately a hundred thorns rose out from the ground beneath the Fire Dragon Slayer and newly Ice Devil Slayer. However, all of the thorns were either burnt to ashes by Natsu, or frozen by Gray.

"It doesn't matter who or what you are, mess with Fairy Tail and you lose!" Natsu proclaimed loudly to the self-entitled underworld king. "There is no form of magic in the world that could ever bring us down!" And for a split second, Gray's otherwise serious face turned into a temporal smile, agreeing with his fellow mage/rival/close friend tenfold.

"Not even the biggest dictionary in existence has enough words to properly describe how much Mard Geer hates you...!" Mard Geer sighed in annoyance, his forehead resting on the palm of one of his hands. "Have you forgotten that Mard Geer and the other Etherious of Tartaros use curses instead of magic?"

Gray and Natsu took the opportunity to attack the 'definitive demon'. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu yelled, running towards the Etherious, his arm pulled back and his fist on fire. However, Mard Geer jumped out of the way of Natsu's punch, dodging the attack.

"Ice-Make: Ice Cannon!" Gray yelled, creating an ice cannon infused with his newfound Devil Slayer Magic. But that attack was also for nought, as Mard Geer used his Thorn Curse to create a shield of thorns, blocking the attack.

Mard Geer scoffed at their efforts.

"Centuries ago, when the One Magic was being transformed into countless variations, Lord E.N.D. created the most powerful variation of the One Magic to ever exist: Curses; fuelled by negative emotions, they are stronger than any other form of magic. Even the greatest mages, including the Ten Wizard Saints, crumble to their knees in the face of our curses."

Natsu and Gray continued to attack Mard Geer in an attempt to hit him, but the founder of Tartaros managed to continuously evade their attacks; either by mere dodging or usage of his Thorn Curse. And through all of this, Mard Geer continued his speak of the history of E.N.D. and curses.

"The reason why Lord E.N.D. created curses, the ultimate weapon against magic, was to fulfil the purpose of his creation: to kill Zeref. As soon as Mard Geer releases Lord E.N.D. from his imprisonment in his tome, Lord E.N.D. will use his curses to open the gates of Hell and burn all in this world to rubble. And finally, the wish for the death of the immortal Zeref will be granted. That is the wish of Zeref himself."

"Like hell I'm gonna let you release E.N.D." Gray said, anger and determination were laced in his voice. "I promised my father that I would use my Ice Demon Slayer magic to kill the fire demon that is E.N.D!"

Mard Geer became silent, his expression was a mixture of shock and emotionlessness. Then suddenly, the 'Underworld King' began laughing like crazy. Natsu and Gray watched in mixed confusion as the Etherious started to calm down.

"It humours Mard Geer that you believe you can defeat Lord E.N.D. because that traitorous Silver gave you his Devil Slayer Magic...!" Mard Geer said, a big grin plastered on his face. The Definitive Demon never knew that there would be a day where he would find human ignorance to something funny. "When Zeref created Lord E.N.D. he was the strongest wizard in the world, and still is to this day."

"Since Lord E.N.D. was the one who created curses, he was initially created with his own magical abilities, magical abilities that he was rumoured to posses even after his creation of curses. In order to kill an immortal, especially one as mighty as Zeref, Lord E.N.D. would have to be created with power that was nothing short of tremendous. Miraculously, The Black Wizard somehow managed to create a demon who's power was enough to grant his wish of death, especially after his empowerment from his creation; the aforementioned curses."

"Lord E.N.D. has power that transcends all imagination, even if he was faced against a thousand Devil Slayers, all whom have had many years to properly master their Devil Slayer Magic, he'd still win single-handedly in that battle; his power would make it one-sided in his favour. Mard Geer finds it to be incredulous that this Ice-Make mage with newly born Devil Slayer Magic believes that he could kill Lord E.N.D."

Natsu and Gray just stared in disbelief; it cannot be possible that one of the demons of Zeref possesses power beyond imagination. But it didn't matter, the duo was adamant in stopping Mard Geer and E.N.D. no matter what they throw at them. No matter how hard Fairy Tail was pushed into the ground, it always came back up. Nothing could stop them, as long as their comrades are with them, they are invincible.

"It is often believed that magic is what creates the future, if that is true than curses are what destroys the future." Mard Geer continued, seemingly charging up a powerful curse attack. "And as a demon who uses curses in his arsenal, Mard Geer will be the one to destroy-"

Mard Geer was promptly interrupted when he had to dodge a sword that was aimed at him, or more accurately the ground that he stood on. His dodge was successful, but that didn't save him from getting hit by a quick, yet powerful, Jellal surrounded by his Heavenly Body Magic. Luckily for the Etherious, he was able to recover mid-air and land on both of his feet, seemingly unharmed.

Mard Geer turned his head towards his two new attackers and was surprised to find that the sword thrower was Erza Scarlet. "How can that be? Weren't you fighting Kyôka?" Mard Geer asked Erza in bemusement.

"I was, and she had shown herself to be a powerful and dangerous opponent." Erza replied, requiping into her Heaven's Wheel Armour. "I could have nearly lost, but luckily I was saved by Jellal and the Oración Seis."

"The Oración Seis?!" Natsu and Gray exclaimed in disbelief. "You mean the same Oración Seis that tried to destroy Cait Shelter with Nirvana?" Gray asked solely. "Or the same Oración Seis that tried to destroy the world with the Infinity Clock?" Natsu asked solely this time.

"Quiet boys!" Erza ordered, giving the Dragon Slayer and Devil Slayer a death glare, scaring the both of them. "The Oración Seis, sans Brain, have joined Crime Sorcière in hope of repenting of their past crimes and sins. They are no longer our enemies, but now our allies."

"Enough of this!" a nearly livid Mard Geer yelled, a seemingly countless number of thorns shooting out of the ground towards the three Fairy Tail mages and Crime Sorcière mage by extension of Mard Geer's Thorn Curse. "It doesn't matter what magic you use or how many, Mard Geer will show you the true power of-"

Mard Geer froze when he sensed another form of magic approaching; it wasn't strong, in fact it felt like there was barely any of it left, but Mard Geer recognised it as a magic that got in his way drastically: Celestial Spirit Magic.

"That wench...!" the definitive demon snarled. Mard Geer was mad enough already, but now that the very same mage that ruined Alegria arrived to get in his way some more, he was made enough to go on a non-stop rampage for days, maybe even weeks. However, the self-entitled 'Underworld King' quickly composed himself. " _Control your useless emotions, Mard Geer._ " Mard Geer thought as he self-composed. " _You cannot revive Lord E.N.D. if Mard Geer is causing pointless, mindless destruction._ "

"Lucy." Jellal said, craning his neck to look where Mard Geer was now facing, sensing the blonde's magic as much as the aforementioned demon had. "I can feel her magic."

Natsu, Gray and Erza immediately faced the area of attention to find the Celestial Spirit mage running towards them in her Aquarius Star Dress (although it was only recognised as a Star Dress by Jellal and possibly Mard Geer).

"Amazing...!" Jellal muttered under his breath, barely noticeable to even Natsu and his greater-than-the-regular-human hearing. "She achieved Star Dress." The former Wizard Saint hadn't been this impressed in the Celestial Spirit Mage's power since she performed that Unison Raid with Juvia in the Tower of Heaven. "Just how great is her magical potential?"

"You have interfered with Mard Geer one time too many!" Mard Geer yelled, extending one of his arms and waving the hand of said arm. The Etherious knew that a mindless rampage would be anything but beneficial, but he also knew that the Celestial Spirit mage has proven herself as a threat; and Mard Geer disposes of all threats as soon as possible. "After Lord E.N.D. is released, Mard Geer will personally torture you for the rest of your life; you will feel pain that is incomprehensible until your existence ceases."

Many thorns shot out of the ground towards Lucy. The Celestial Spirit mage shielded herself from the thorns, but they didn't make contact with her. Lucy opened her eyes and gasped when she saw Natsu in-front of her; the Fire Dragon Slayer managed to be faster than Mard Geer's Thorn Curse, get in-front of Lucy and burn all of the thorns.

"Like hell I would let even a single thorn touch a hair on Lucy." Natsu growled, his anger seemingly igniting the flames even more than they already were. "If you or E.N.D. lay even a single finger on Lucy, I'll burn you both to a pile of ashes!"

Mard Geer didn't know why or how, but there was... something about Natsu that sent a shiver up his spine. It was just... something about the sheer anger and power behind the Dragon Slayer's eyes that felt like a nightmare from long ago.

Mard Geer had an amazing memory that could go back to over a century, but he could never remember even a single second of back when E.N.D. roamed the planet. Not only was it a really long time ago, but it also felt like a powerful outside force was blocking his memory.

But in that short moment, the Fire Dragon Slayer reminded him of that time from long ago. And when Mard Geer was reminded of that time, he felt an emotion that he didn't feel in a really long time; even longer than when he felt anger; that emotion was fear.

However, the demon quickly shook off that feeling; he wasn't gonna feel fear for the first time in a long time from a _human_ of all species. "You must be more foolish than Mard Geer anticipated if you believe it is possible to burn Lord E.N.D. to ashes, _human_." Mard Geer said to Natsu with smugness that was partially feigned. "Lord E.N.D. is more than just a regular fire demon, he is the strongest fire demon in existence; there is absolutely no fire whatsoever, be it from even dragon or god, that isn't meaningless when applied against him."

Mard Geer's words, however, may as well have fallen on deaf ears, because when it came to Lucy, Natsu would burn anything for her. It doesn't matter if it was E.N.D, or a god or even a friggin concept like destiny, logic or even time and space, he would burn it to ashes for Lucy.

"You should run, Luce." Natsu warned, turning towards the blond mage. "This guy we're fightin' is really strong and dangerous, also I can sense how low you are on magical energy. It's too dangerous for you."

"But I want to help." Lucy protested, her friends were exhausted and yet were still fighting. She knew that Natsu was right; after having to survive against Tartaros on her own, sacrificing Aquarius and then summoning the Celestial Spirit King, Lucy was drained and exhaust physically, magically and emotionally. She knows that it will take years for her to heal from the loss of Aquarius; her first ever friend, even if the feeling was unrequited.

But still, she was a member of Fairy Tail; this wasn't the first time that she was thrown into a hopeless situation, and it wouldn't be the last. It didn't matter if even the effort of breathing or consciousness was exhausting her limits, she'll help her friends to the end.

Besides, Natsu is a hypocrite if he's gonna say that something is 'too dangerous' for her; if that dim-witted Dragon Slayer is going to continue fighting enemies of impossible strength head-on after being beaten into hell and back, he has no right to tell others that they can't handle something.

The Dragon Slayer and Celestial Spirit Mage looked at each other in the eye in silence (silence between them, the battle of Gray, Erza and Jellal vs Mard Geer that was happening behind them was anything but silent). Natsu closed his eyes, grunted, and then smiled at Lucy.

"Ok then!" the Fire Dragon Slayer said with a bit of enthusiasm despite the situation, and then pointed to where E.N.D.'s tome was carefully placed by Mard Geer. "See that book over there? I need you to get it for me, but don't open or destroy it." Natsu then started running back to the battle of wizards vs demon that was happening behind him. "I'm trusting ya on this, ok?"

Lucy just nodded with a thumbs up and made her advance towards E.N.D.'s tome. While Natsu genuinely believed that Lucy was strong, he didn't want to risk her getting killed by Mard Geer, so getting her to retrieve the book that E.N.D. was sealed in was the safest way she could be useful.

Among that, Igneel had explicitly told Natsu to get E.N.D.'s tome (with the exact same 'don't open or destroy' rules), so having Lucy retrieve it while Natsu, Gray, Erza and Jellal were keeping Mard Geer occupied also sound like a good idea.

And than there's the fact that Natsu's wackadoo logic determined Lucy as best suited for the task because she's a bookworm.

"Blumenblatt!" Erza yelled as she used the Heaven's Wheel Armour spell against Mard Geer. The Etherious dodged Erza and the slices from her two swords in hand, although a few of the swords that acted as the secondary strike managed to scrape the self-proclaimed 'Underworld King'. However, Mard Geer didn't acknowledge the small tears on his clothing; only an arrogant fool would shift his focus from his battle to something as meagre as that.

"Grand Chariot!" Jellal yelled overhead, casting his Grand Chariot spell. Mard Geer still managed to avoid the attack, albeit barely, activating his Thorn Curse shortly afterwards to attack the Heavenly Body Mage. Mard Geer, to his own ire, was too busy trying to attack Jellal (who was dodging the thorns via his Meteor spell) to notice a cold presence grow behind him.

"Ice Devil's Double Purification Slash!" Gray yelled, striking Mard Geer with two swords made from his Ice Devil Slayer Magic. The Etherious was noticeably phased by the attack as pain was shown on his face, a massive shard of ice quickly growing and breaking from where he was slashed. Mard Geer recovered, but it was still noticeable that Gray's magic was the most effective against him.

"Thorn Hell!" Mard Geer yelled in a more than frustrated state. Through the power of his Thorn Curse, Mard Geer summoned hundreds, if not thousands, of thorns that are half the width of a regular pinkie finger, but they were still sharp and dangerous nevertheless; all aimed at Gray, Erza and Jellal.

"I got this!" Natsu yelled, jumping head-first (literally) at countless thorns. Fire emitted from the Dragon Slayer's hands as he did a twirl mid-air, burning all of the thin thorns to a crisp. Or so he thought; after landing, Natsu noticed that there was one lone thorn that wasn't aimed at him or the others; instead, it seemed to be aimed _away_ from them and to somewhere or someone else.

"Ah!" Lucy shrieked from behind Natsu in pain, the Dragon Slayer looked behind himself, eyes wide and pupils small (a similar action of expression was on Gray and Erza's faces). The thin thorn was wrapped tightly around Lucy's left ankle, piercing through the skin and into her flesh.

A fire ignited both inward and outward from Natsu, the furious Dragon Slayer grabbed onto the lone thorn, burning it. The part of the thorn that was wrapped around Lucy's ankle had loosened completely and let go of her before seemingly disappearing from existence.

Lucy gripped the bleeding wound in pain and agony, almost compelling her friends (Natsu, Gray and Erza) to rush to her aid, but the Celestial Spirit Mage gave them a thumbs up to tell them she was ok. Lucy's friends knew that she was faking it, that she was anything but ok, but they could see in her eyes that she wanted them to focus more on the threat at hand than at her.

"I already warned you!" Natsu growled, fire burning ablaze in his hands. "Now I'm gonna burn you to a pile of ashes!"

Then all four mages ran straight to Mard Geer, Erza requiping into her Black Wing Armour. Mard Geer extended out one of his arms and hands, sending many thorns towards the oncoming mages. With a grunt, Erza slashed the thorns into miniature pieces, allowing Natsu, Gray and Jellal to continue their onslaught.

Mard Geer growled, using the Thorn Curse to summon the Prison Flower. Jellal flew straight at the Prison Flower, being encompassed by it completely. "Jellal!" the other free mages yelled in horror, especially Erza. The Prison Flower then started to jerk from side to side, as though it was struggling, before a huge ball of darkness exploded out of it, a result of Jellal's Altairis spell.

"Attack him now!" Jellal yelled backwards to Natsu and Gray, falling to his hands and knees. The two Slayer mages ran past Jellal, preparing their magic to strike down Mard Geer, meanwhile Erza looked at Jellal with a look of reassurance in her eyes.

Swiping his index and middle fingers, Mard Geer created multiple rose compounds of his Curse Power; the Rose Explosion of his Thorn Curse. The rose compounds exploded around Natsu and Gray, engulfing the two Slayer mages in a dust cloud.

Mard Geer almost thought that the Rose Explosion had successfully killed Natsu and Gray, but the two Slayer mages ran out of the dust cloud towards the demon, Natsu's right had engulfed by his Fire Dragon's Iron Fist spell, while Gray's left arm was covered by a gauntlet made of Ice Devil Slayer Magic.

Mard Geer had, at most, had a second to feel the emotion of shock before both Slayer mages punched him in the face, sending him flying a few feet back. The dragon slayer and demon slayer were about to strike Mard Geer again, but the Etherious had surrounded himself in a dome of thick thorns, protecting him from their attacks.

"Crap!" Natsu and Gray yelled in unison, while their attacks were effective against the thorns, which were more durable than the other thorns that Mard Geer had used in their battle, more thorns kept on replacing the ones that were destroyed; the dome was too resilient for the two Slayer mages to successfully destroy.

"I got this." Erza said from overhead, requiping into her Purgatory Armour. "Netherworld Impact!" Erza yelled, a light purple blade spawning from her spiked mace before she striking down onto the thorn dome, breaking it and sending Mard Geer flying.

The demon spun his body around, landing on his feet and digging his fingers into the ground, albeit he still skidded before stopping.

"Watch where you're aiming that you psycho!" Gray yelled, having barely dodged Erza's 'Netherworld Impact' spell.

"Yeah, give us a better warning next time, you maniac!" Natsu yelled, having gone through the same predicament as Gray.

"What was that?!" Erza leered, sending a chill up Natsu and Gray's spines, reminding them that while she is still a close friend of theirs, she's still the same Titania that they were afraid of.

"N-nothing ma'am!" Natsu and Gray replied shakily in fear. Erza can be greatly terrifying when angered, that is indisputable.

Mard Geer growled at the mages in rage, intense curse power building up in his hands. " _Those deplorable humans! Their foolhardy ways have sullied Mard Geer and Tartaros!_ " Mard Geer thought angrily to himself, more curse power building in his hands as he prepared to cast the Memento Mori curse. " _This time, Mard Geer will have no interfere-_ ".

Mard Geer stopped completely, his curse power dissipating. He could feel it; the immense, unimaginable curse power of E.N.D. seeping from his tome. But how? Mard Geer knew that even with the plan of Face subsided, he would still find some way to revive Lord E.N.D., but how was E.N.D.'s power resurfacing so suddenly.

Mard Geer peered towards Lord E.N.D.'s tome, he noticed that Lucy (that was what the humans were calling the wench) was slowly nearing towards it. Lucy's ankle wound and drain on magical power had taken their toll her, so she was sluggish and even taking small, frequent stops.

But there was something about Lucy that surprised Mard Geer and stopped him from attacking her; the closer she got, the more of Lord E.N.D.'s curse power was realised. How could it be? How could something as lowly as a human be the explanation behind Lord E.N.D.'s seeping power?

Does it have a relation behind the wench's inexplicable immunity to Alegria?

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Mard Geer was brought out of his ponder in order to dodge the spell casted by Natsu. The Fire Dragon Slayer then used his Fire Dragon's Roar spell against the Etherious, who barely dodged it, and yet still the edges of his jacket were set afire and burnt before the flames quickly died out.

"Requip: Lightning Empress Armour." Erza said, requiping into the aforementioned armour. Using the power of her Lightning Empress Armour, Erza managed to strike Mard Geer with a Lightning Beam spell. Unfortunately for Mard Geer, the demon was unable to dodge so he had to take the attack.

Mard Geer grunted as he hit the ground. Pushing himself off the ground, Mard Geer saw Gray swinging an ice sword infused with Devil Slayer Magic at him. Through quick thinking and action, Mard Geer used his Thorn Curse to shoot a thorn out of the ground, piercing through the sword near the hilt, breaking it.

Gray dodged the thorn, as well as a couple other thorns that Mard Geer generated, but this allowed Mard Geer to create a distance between the two.

Despite the fact that Mard Geer considered defeating the four mages as his top priority, he couldn't help but ponder what the human harlot had to do with the sealed, superior demon.

Could it be a relation to her magic and the magic sealing Lord E.N.D.? No, she possesses Celestial Spirit Magic, while the magic used to seal Lord E.N.D. is definitely something different in both type and power level.

Another possibility is that this Lucy wench has met Lord E.N.D. before, but that would be preposterous; she most definitely wasn't alive during Lord E.N.D.'s reign, and even if she did get the honour of meeting Lord E.N.D., it would be as he takes away her life. Her pathetic, human excuse of a life.

"Ice Devil's Rage!" Gray screamed, shooting a large, purple blizzard of his Ice Demon Slayer Magic out from his mouth and towards Mard Geer. The Etherious demon jumped high in the air, only barely evading the spell.

But before Mard Geer could attack Gray with any of his own spells, Erza flew right at him, once again in her Black Wing Armour, slashing at the demon with her twin swords. Mard Geer was then assaulted mid-air by a fast, but powerful, yellow projectile. As the yellow projectile hitted the 'Underworld King' continuously, Mard Geer came to realise that the projectile was Jellal using his Meteor spell.

Mard Geer tried to use his Thorn Curse to attack Jellal, but the Heavenly Body Mage was too fast for Mard Geer to have even a second to use his curse. After being hit by the Meteor spell who knows how many times, Mard Geer was no longer pursued by the aforementioned spell.

But to say that Mard Geer had a chance to fight back would be a misunderstanding.

Instantly, Natsu activated his Fire Dragon Slayer Magic and bombarded Mard Geer with multiple spells in his arsenal. Fire Dragon's Roar! Fire Dragon's Iron Fist! Fire Dragon's Wing Attack! Fire Dragon's Sword Horn! Fire Dragon's Crushing Fang!

And now, with what resides of his dissipating magical energy, to finish it off...!

" _With a flame on the right hand..._

 _and a flame on the left hand..._

 _When you combine the flames together..._

 ** _Fire Dragon's Brilliant_ _Flame!_** "

That last spell sent Mard Geer flying into the air, his body and clothes tattered in burns and scratches. But Mard Geer wasn't at a complete loss yet, he could still cast the Dea Yggdrasil spell that would leave the four mages-

"Now Gray!" Natsu yelled, hunched down on his hands and knees, gasping deep breaths of exhaustion.

"Ice Devil's Zeroth Destruction Bow!" Gray yelled, a bow and arrow made from his Ice Demon Slayer Magic manifested in his hands. With a pull back from Gray, the arrow shot out and impaled Mard Geer through the stomach before turning into a spikey array of ice. Mard Geer screamed in pain, the Devil Slayer Magic properties of the ice stung immensely through his abdomen.

Mard Geer fell down onto the ground, a small crater was made as he made contact with the soil of the ground.

"This... this cannot be...!" Mard Geer muttered in dumbfounded shock. "Mard Geer Tartaros, the strongest of all of the demons of Tartaros and king of the Nine Demon Gates... D-defeated... by those insects...! By those _humans_...!"

Gray, Natsu, Erza (who was now back in her regular Heart Kreuz Armour) and Jellal walked up to the crater and stared at the defeated Etherious that laid down on the ground, his eyes as wide as plates and his iris' the size of specks, his mouth gaping open. The four mages felt respective levels of satisfaction among each other, even though they were all respectively battered and exhausted, with Natsu feeling like he could sleep for a week.

But to their surprise, and partial horror, Mard Geer started laughing inexplicably, originating as a nigh inaudible chuckle before concluding as a loud, maniacal uproar. The four mages took a step back in confusion; didn't Mard Geer admit that he has been defeated? If so, then why would he laugh in this fight between life and death?

Despite the many other emotions that were fogging his mind, Gray felt his anger becoming his most prominent emotion.

"Why the hell are you laughing?!" Gray yelled, his rage seething. "You're defeated, the Nine Demon Gates are all dead and your plans of Face have been obliterated! You lost, it's checkmate for you!"

Mard Geer's maniacal laugh began to die down into a calm chuckle before stopping completely.

"Defeat and loss are two different concepts, you revolting, flaccid flesh waste...!" Mard Geer retorted in a calm, yet condescending, manner before excitement dressed his face as his voice became just as excited. "I can feel it, despite your aforementioned reasoning against such a fact, Lord E.N.D.'s revival is now at its zenith!"

* * *

Pain, it coated her body from every molecule within it; her left ankle, in particular, was throbbing in pain. Her energy had been immensely depleted; even keeping herself in consciousness was requiring her complete effort.

And as she came closer and closer to the tome that contained E.N.D.; the most powerful, most fearsome demon to be created by Zeref, her friends were keeping another powerful and fearsome demon of Zeref at bay.

Lucy Heartfilia has had one literal hell of a bad day.

Still, Lucy edged closer to the tome to retrieve it while making sure she doesn't open or destroy it, like Natsu told her. But there was something... fearful about the tome; as she came closer and closer, a strange, evil energy began to arise. An enormous, tremendous, evil power - curse power; E.N.D.'s curse power, to be exact.

Eerie. Frightening. Dangerous! A powerful and dangerous force that would eradicate anything it came across; leaving everything to ruin. But simultaneously, this exact same force of unstoppable destruction was reaching out to her; not to destroy her, but to hold her and keep her, forever. Uncanny.

Even more, Lucy could feel the power of the magic seal. Whoever made the magic seal had magical power that was truly immense, it would probably take even the Moon Drip multiple decades to begin dispelling it. No wonders why the demons of Tartaros sought out Face to break the magic seal.

But that wasn't the weird thing about the seal; the weird thing was that the seal was reacting to her magic, almost like it was _pulling_ her magic towards it. And as she came closer, Lucy felt the magic seal _waver_. That filled Lucy with near-incalculable dread.

"Ice Devil's Zeroth Destruction Bow!" Gray yelled from somewhere behind Lucy, the sound quickly replaced by a loud scream and something making a hard impact against the ground. Lucy didn't know why, but she somehow just knew that her friends defeated Mard Geer.

Lucy then found herself standing near the tome, easily in her reach. The Celestial Spirit Mage hesitated; the amount of curse power emitting from E.N.D.'s tome was overwhelming. Lucy's breath got caught in her throat, and her body shivered; she felt like she could hear a familiar yet foreign voice calling out to her.

Slowly, Lucy moved her shaking hand closer and closer to the tome of E.N.D., intending to give it to Natsu. But then, Lucy heard a maniacal laughter behind herself, and, unbeknownst to her, she touched E.N.D.'s tome.

And that's when her life was changed forever.

With powerful force, Lucy was pushed onto the ground, right onto her back. The terrifying curse energy of E.N.D was increasing tenfold, the fires of E.N.D. shot out of the tome of E.N.D. into a human-sized fireball.

Lucy glanced back at her friends and Jellal, their eyes held rapid fear, much like her own. Lucy looked back at the presumed fireball manifestation of E.N.D. to find that it was... looking at her? A prolonged 'bump' with the width of a human arm and the length of a human leg was seemingly staring at her, before the same 'bump' receded back into the human-sized fireball that floated over the newly abandoned tome of E.N.D.

The five mages stared at the fireball, even Natsu was paralyzed in fear by what was before them. Incredulously and ludicrously, Mard Geer was also seemingly paralyzed in the negative aspect of the emotional spectrum that we have given the name of 'fear'.

It was illogical, why was Mard Geer feeling fear from what he tried with great effort to achieve? Fragments of lost memories that were kept hidden in the deepest and darkest corners of his mind had complied to his demand, Mard Geer's eyes had widened in the realization of why his master's release had resurfaced the forgotten emotion of fear, as well as in the disbelief of said master's true form.

"That... that cannot be the truth...!" Mard Geer muttered quietly, almost under his breath, unnoticed by the five mages whose attention was stuck on the supposed form of E.N.D. that was the human-sized fireball. "Lord E.N.D. couldn't possibly be...!"

The inactive, human-sized fireball then crackled fiercely before flying towards Natsu at high speeds, engulfing him. Fires of intense heat and force shot out from under the ground, like a geyser of hot magma, sending Gray, Erza, Jellal and even Mard Geer (who was still in the crater) flying away by a few feet; even Lucy was facing difficulties with staying on the ground, despite the distance between herself and the newly created pillar of fire.

And through the loud sound of air and fire, Lucy could hear a sound that put cracks in her heart: Natsu was screaming in intense pain.

"Natsu!" Lucy screamed, tears welling in her eyes as she knew that her friend was in great pain that she couldn't stop; great pain that she partially blamed herself for. Natsu's screams of pain died down and were replaced by an evil, sinister cackle. The cackle sent shivers down Lucy's spine; it sounded like Natsu, but deeper and more... demonic, as in it was a legion of the same voice.

The pillar of fire surrounding Natsu began to dissipate, revealing a new figure that looked like Natsu. No, it didn't 'look' like Natsu; it was Natsu, a new Natsu that was the demon form of E.N.D.

It was no longer Natsu in his body; he was taken over by E.N.D.

This new Natsu, otherwise known as E.N.D., was both similar and different to the old Natsu in appearance. For a first, he had two outstretched wings that were bat-like in appearance, both wings were as wide as E.N.D. when in this outstretched form, both sprouting out from his back. These new additions of wings had resulted in the destruction of Natsu's shirt, showing the new, dark, tendril-like markings on his skin.

Among this new information, if one were to look at E.N.D.'s right shoulder then they would notice that Natsu's red Fairy Tail guild mark was turned into a black Tartaros guild mark.

E.N.D.'s skin tone and hair colour were a little darker than Natsu's, with horns that grew out somewhere near his temples, curving forwards around the end. Natsu's hands had been transformed into sharp demonic claws that were completely black, lacking any other details.

But his eyes... dear _God_ his eyes; they were most unquestionably not human, not anymore. Both eyes had more of a resemblance towards being portals that led into an infinite abyss that was blacker than even the darkest of nights. But they weren't just holes of absolute darkness on his face, not when there were two crimson slits that were redder than blood taking the placement of his pupils; crimson slits that were blank and emotionless.

* * *

Overhead, Acnologia, The Black Dragon of the Apocalypse, and Igneel, The Fire Dragon King, continued their vicious battle, both the Fire Dragon and the Dragon-Slayer-turned-Dragon were quite bellicose in the face of each other. If their battle continued without interruption, the two would eventually do a clash that would end fatally for the dying Fire Dragon.

Their confrontation was, however, interrupted by the awakening of E.N.D., the two dragons stopping almost immediately as an enormous fire pillar of intense heat and power seemingly shot out from the ground.

" _What... what is this power?_ " Acnologia thought to himself, his interest peaking as he sensed an immense power beyond anything he had ever felt before. " _This power... I'm looking forward to fighting whoever holds it._ " The black dragon grinned wickedly, peering at the unidentified silhouette in the middle of the fire pillar; he may want to fight the person who has that much power, but he wants to know if they can properly fight with it first.

This opportunity would have given Igneel the merit of an advantage against Acnologia, that is if Igneel wasn't reduced to a wallowing mess of self-pity.

"N... N- _NO_ _!_ " Igneel shouted in exacerbation, grabbing his head by the temples, tears leaking out as he shook his head side-to-side. "Why?! _Why did this have to happen to my son?!_ Why...? Natsu, I'm so sorry that I failed you! I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you from becoming that demon again!"

Both dragons stayed floating in their specific area in the air, oblivious to the existence of the other dragon despite their battle from earlier, Acnologia was grinning in anticipation for a potential challenge while Igneel kept mumbling words like 'I failed you!' and 'Forgive me Natsu!' and so and so.

* * *

E.N.D. stood still, staring blankly at the ground beneath his feet, charred greatly upon his repossession of his body. Lucy, Erza and Jellal stood still at the revelation before them, the three mages had seemingly forgotten to breathe due to the surprise of their new knowledge.

"That cannot be true!" Gray growled through gritted teeth, rage building from within at the possibility of how E.N.D. managed to posses Natsu so flawlessly. "The demon that I promised my father that I would slay cannot be..." Gray suddenly ran towards the fire demon, a sword made of his Ice Demon Slayer Magic in hand, snarling wildly "NATSU!"

Lucy gasped, her hands going over her mouth as her heart made rapid beats. "No stop, Gray!"

Growling, Gray swiped his sword at E.N.D., but the Etherious dodged without even having to move his feet; merely turning the top half of his body. E.N.D. bended his knees to become on the same level as Gray's stomach, punching it with enough force to make blood shoot out of Gray's mouth as the Ice Devil Slayer flew back from the force of the punch.

E.N.D.'s face remained immutable; the exact same blank expression, although it was starting to have more of a semblance to boredom and disappointment. E.N.D. scanned the area around him, ignoring Erza and Jellal as he looked right through them, however, he stopped when he saw Lucy and smiled... like a regular human being; something unexpected from the great fire demon from the book of Zeref.

E.N.D. began walking towards Lucy, but was stopped by the presence of Mard Geer.

"Lord E.N.D." Mard Geer said, limping towards the fire demon from behind before bowing down to E.N.D. with great respect. "Mard Geer has waited a long time to free you from that book, even though he had forgotten about your existence in almost its entirety. Mard Geer apologises for trying to kill your body, he didn't know that that was your body. But now that you're free, you, Lord E.N.D., and Mard Geer can give Zeref the death he wishes."

E.N.D. stood still in silence, not turning towards Mard Geer in the slightest. Mard Geer looked up at E.N.D. from his bow, confusion on his face as he wondered why E.N.D. was being unresponsive towards him. "Lor-?"

Mard Geer was abruptly interrupted when E.N.D. shot a fireball into Mard Geer's abdomen, the 'Underworld King' screamed in immense pain as the fire burned him more than any other flame could. Back pressed against the ground, Mard Geer patted against the fire until it singed, revealing the bare stomach of his human form. Mard Geer stared at E.N.D. with confusion and fear, an amalgam of emotions that looked unnatural on Mard Geer (even though the entirety of Mard Geer was unnatural).

"Shut up, you inferior excuse of a demon!" E.N.D. growled venomously, glaring down at Mard Geer in disdain. Lucy's shock began to disappear and the realization began to kick in that Natsu - the Natsu who was her closest and dearest friend - was turned into the demon known as E.N.D.; not only did she lose someone important to her heart, but that same person had became the strongest demon of the most powerful, most wicked mage in Earth Land.

This new information caused tears to appear in Lucy's eyes as she started to cry, falling down to her knees, her sobs and tears were heard by E.N.D., even as he scolded and belittled Mard Geer. E.N.D.'s anger was redirected from Mard Geer to whatever it was that made _her_ cry.

"My demon queen is crying...!" E.N.D. mumbled under his breath, to the point that Mard Geer could only hear it as an incomprehensible whisper despite being near E.N.D.

E.N.D. turned from Mard Geer towards Lucy, stepping towards the crying Celestial Spirit Mage with a longing look in his eyes. Lucy's crying was reduced to a sniffle as she noticed E.N.D. staring at her crying form, his eyes holding... compassion and protectiveness?!

Lucy was feeling weird; she felt fear, but she strangely also felt safe and calm when near the demon. She might be going crazy.

"Lu-" E.N.D. said, but was interrupted when Gray attempted to attack him. Luckily, for the Etherious, E.N.D. dodged the attack with ease, although his dodge resulted in a distance between him and Lucy- with Gray being between them.

"Get away from one of my comrades!" Gray growled, Ice Devil Slayer Magic building up in his hands. "And while you're at it, release Natsu!" E.N.D. merely started laughing, clutching his stomach area as his hard laughing was starting to hurt it. "What's so funny?" Gray growled again, this time through gritted teeth.

"It's just so humorous that you think that I had imprisoned Natsu." E.N.D. replied in an almost condescending tone, starring down Gray with a smug-like grin. "I _am_ Natsu; the real Natsu. The Natsu that you knew was just an idiot that possessed the hollow husk of my body, now reduced to a mental spirit that can only watch my actions without interference."

"But that doesn't make sense!" Gray yelled at E.N.D. incredulously. "You were created decades ago, Natsu is only a teenager; it's impossible for you two to be the same being!"

"Ah yes, the truth of Natsu and myself must have left you bewildered." E.N.D. said, looking slightly to his left as if he was thoroughly thinking his explanation through, before sharply turning his head back to Gray. E.N.D. glared at the Ice Devil Slayer; not only did he glare at E.N.D. threateningly (as if that weakling could ever compare to E.N.D., nevertheless be a threat to him), but that worthless pile of human flesh was also between him and his beloved demon queen.

"Approximately over four hundred years ago, when magic was exponentially rarer than it is nowadays, Natsu was born. However, when Natsu was still just a child, he and his parents were killed by dragons." E.N.D. explained, although his explanation was currently making everything more confusing. "Despite his young age, Natsu was very close to Zeref. So, unable to accept Natsu's death, a very young Zeref attended the Mildian Magic Academy, in hopes of finding a connection between life, death and magic so he could revive Natsu."

"During his studies, Zeref created the R-System and the Eclipse Gate to bring Natsu back to life, however Zeref didn't use them in the end for their own respective and valid reasons. Zeref may have created more magical items of black magic if he wasn't expelled from the academy for breaching the sacred teachings of Ankhseram, the same breaching resulting in Ankhseram cursing Zeref with the Curse of Contradiction."

"Because of the Curse of Contradiction, Zeref could no longer live a life where he could love it freely; if he had any value in life then he would spontaneously release a powerful wave of death magic that would kill almost anything that was exposed to it, and he would have no control over it. If Zeref lost all value in life, then he would have full control over his death magic, but he would no longer feel any guilt if he chose to kill someone."

"Among that, the Curse of Contradiction made Zeref an immortal mage with immense magical power. Zeref was cursed to eternally roam this planet with everything and everyone that he loved dying purely because he loved it; making the mage force himself into solitude to protect the innocent from him. Ankhseram is one hell of a vengeful god that you don't want to piss off."

"The Curse of Contradiction gave Zeref the desire to die, leading him to creating a species of demons made solely for the purpose of killing him: the Etherious. After realising that he had magic that could create life, Zeref decided that he could use the same magic in a similar fashion to revive Natsu, having preserved his body. In the end, Natsu's resurrection was in the form of my creation."

"Despite being born in less than a day, in the body of a _child_ nevertheless, I had the intelligence and awareness of an adult. Shortly thereafter, Zeref had told me all of this, even the truth that I was the reincarnation of the original Natsu. Zeref had also told me that as I continue to grow older, I would continue to grow stronger, until not even the Curse of Contradiction could stop me from killing Zeref. After explaining the reasoning and purpose behind my existence, Zeref instantly vanished without a trace, like he was nothing more than a figment of my imagination."

"The other Etherious quickly recognised me as their 'lord' and treated me as such, the other Etherious that weren't mindlessly causing death and destruction as an end goal, that is. Humans were very quick to fear and hate us for being demons, especially because of how infamous the mindless Etherious were. Goddamn Deliora. This resulted in us, the Etherious, gaining a fear and hatred, particularly the latter, for humans."

"So the reasoning behind the Etherious' hatred for humans was because humans were behaving iniquitously towards them...?" Erza murmured from a distance from E.N.D., although the king of demons heard her anyways.

"That is true; humans are despicable beings that deserve nothing but pain and despair." E.N.D. said, turning his head towards Erza and Jellal to show that he is aware of the presence of the Requip mage and Heavenly Body mage. The demon king of the Etherious turned his head back to his demon queen and the massive annoyance standing in the way of his demon queen. E.N.D.'s face softened as his eyes stayed on Lucy, a small smile appeared as his eyes held the emotion of immense fondness for a brief moment, a tint of pink/red on his cheeks.

"Well, there is at least one human who deserves happiness." E.N.D. mumbled too quietly for anyone to even briefly notice, before turning his head away while clearing his throat. "Anyways, in the past all of the Etherious had relied on magic, so we didn't face well against magic dispellers at the time, which there was a surprisingly high number of." E.N.D. raised his right hand to his side, a fire appearing on the flat palm.

"Since magic was still new and changeable, I created curses; a stronger form of magic that was immune to what can negate and dispel magic. With this stronger and more... evil, as we should say, form of magic that no-one had a way of countering we became far stronger than the regular human being, which was when we began to view humans as being insects."

"Eventually we gained the attention of even dragons, as even the great 'Fire Dragon King' Igneel fought against me because of how powerful and dangerous I was. Sadly, despite my superior power and Fire Curse, Igneel was still able to absorb my flames due to being a fire dragon, so I had to rely on my other curses, which were weaker than my Fire Curse and magic. Nevertheless, my battle against Igneel ended inconclusively; both of us having to retreat from battle to heal our wounds."

"While healing, I had a positive premonition that I would meet a certain someone, a certain someone whom I would care for dearly. Not wishing to wait to meet this certain someone, I sealed myself in my tome, the power of my magical seal making even the memories of who I was become sealed to all but the strongest; thus Zeref and Igneel remembered what I looked like and what I was capable of."

"Sealing away myself had resulted in my body reverting back to when Natsu was a young child, my regenerative abilities allowing my body to heal; allowing Natsu to live again. Despite knowing that Natsu and I were the same being, Igneel decided to not only let Natsu live but to also raise him and teach him Dragon Slayer Magic."

E.N.D. broke out into a loud laugh, wiping a tear of joy off one of his eyes. "The overgrown lizard was dumb enough to love and protect his worst enemy, the most powerful and dangerous demon that the world has ever seen, while that same worst enemy was in a very vulnerable state. If _he_ was transformed into a powerless baby dragon, I would kill him without a second thought."

"The dragons faced a fearsome threat in Acnologia, a Dragon Slayer who became a dragon in his thirst for the annihilation of all dragons. Hypocrite much. Eventually, the number of dragons barely passed the double digits, and even then their souls had been damaged by the goddamn Dragon Slayer. The dragons then decided to use the Eclipse Gate to travel through time so that they could fight Acnologia when there is more Ethernano."

"By using a spell called the Dragon Soul Technique, five dragons passed through the Eclipse Gate while having their souls concealed within Dragon Slayers that they trained themselves. This technique, that the Dragons Slayers where unaware of, also helped the dragons create antibodies to protect the Dragon Slayers from becoming dragons or becoming uncontrollably bloodthirsty."

"These dragons were Igneel, Grandeeney, Metalicana, Skiadrum and Weisslogia. The Dragon Slayers were Natsu Dragneel, Wendy Marvell, Gajeel Redfox, Sting Eucliffe and Rogue Cheney respectively. The Dragon Slayers entered the Eclipse Gate around four hundred years ago and passed through the gate on July 7, X777, although their memories were altered by their dragons; don't know why though, that plan was pretty idiotic. Then again, dragons are pretty idiotic anyways."

Lucy, Gray, Erza and Jellal stared at E.N.D. with widened eyes, processing the information about the 1st and 3rd generation Dragon Slayers. "So that's why..." Lucy mused before gasping, standing up abruptly and unconsciously. "That's why neither Natsu or Gajeel could pass through Freed's enchantment when Laxus tried to take over Fairy Tail; while they are teens, they're chronologically over four hundred years old."

Erza and Gray were seemingly pondering about how that made sense; being chronologically over eighty years old is still over eighty years old. Meanwhile, Jellal raised an eyebrow in confusion, unaware that the 2nd generation Dragon Slayer had tried to take over the Fairy Tail guild in the past. Although it explained why his personality changed a bit when Jellal was restored from his comatose state by Wendy.

"Of course, I've grown far bored of all this talking and explaining, so if you have any questions then don't ask them." E.N.D. said, having had enough of explaining his and Natsu's existence to these pathetic vermin, all that he wanted was to take his demon queen in his arms and have her rule alongside him. E.N.D. looked towards Grey hatefully with a hint of animosity, that Ice-Make turned Devil Slayer was an annoyance since the first day they met.

"Now out of my way!" E.N.D. growled at the nuisance with a stripping habit who isn't even near to be worthy of his presence, a sword made entirely of chaotic fires appearing in one his hands/claws. "If you stay between me and Lucy, I won't hesitate to kill you. Then again, I wouldn't hesitate to kill you anyways."

"What do you want with Lucy?" Gray growled through gritted teeth, a long and sharp sword made of his Devil Slayer Magic (aided by the capabilities of his Ice-Make) appearing in his hand. If what this demon is saying is true and Natsu is Zeref's strongest and most fearsome demon who is older than four centuries and unaware of it (unsurprising, that idiot burned his brain into ash years ago for all that Gray is certain), than Gray isn't sure what to believe about Natsu anymore; even if his rival/best friend is still in there, the Devil Slayer still wouldn't trust him with Lucy.

E.N.D. merely growled in response, extending out the hand/claw that wasn't holding a sword made of chaotic fires. Fire and Curse energy began to emit in E.N.D.'s palm before the fire demon clenched his hand/claw. Gray's otherwise cold sword began to heat up inexplicably before exploding into a mixture of ice pieces and fire, the explosion in mind was small and did little damage towards Gray.

Before Gray could even react to or comprehend what happened, E.N.D. punched him in the gut and ribs, sending the mage into a small stump of a wall among the debris. Gray shakily pushed himself up so that he wasn't lying among the rubble, the mage held himself up with one hand while the other was holding his abdomen because of the immense pain in the area of his body.

Lucy looked at her close friend in horror, even his breaths were shaky; the damage from both the punch and flying into the wall must have broken some of his ribs. Despite barely having enough energy to even breathe, Gray continued to glare at E.N.D., as if he was still trying to threaten the demon.

"Don't pretend that what I just did was uncalled for and without warning." E.N.D. said to Gray with nonchalant indifference, although the corners of the Etherious' lips turned upward slightly; if that prick thought that he could be a threat because he has a type of magic made specifically to destroy the type of demon that E.N.D. is, he deserved the pain and damage. "Anything and anyone that gets between me and Lucy deserves the full power of my wrath."

For a reason that Lucy couldn't understand, she felt her cheeks heat up as blood rushed to her cheeks into a blush. Lucy suddenly noticed that there was a jet black claw in-front of her crouching form, the palm outstretched. Lucy looked up from the palm to see none other than E.N.D. looking down her, his indisputably demonic eyes showing a sense of longing.

She didn't know why, but Lucy felt like she should take his claw; that she has no reason to fear him. Maybe everything that has happened left Lucy with little common sense remaining. Maybe it was because he wasn't showing even an iota of hostility towards her, despite showing lots of it to everyone else. Or maybe it was because it didn't matter if he was E.N.D. or Natsu Dragneel, he was still Natsu to her.

But that mental reassurance concluded with a tremendous weight of dubiousness. It reminded Lucy of when Erza revealed the existence of the Tower of Heaven and her hidden past with it. It was shocking at first, but in the end the Erza they knew was still the real Erza.

But this was different on a entirely different scale. This was not only about Natsu being the strongest demon of the most evil wizard in history, but it was also about Natsu being from a different time period. These revelations were what caused the dubious weight to fall upon Lucy as she wondered if she knew who Natsu really was.

Hell, it made Lucy wonder if even Natsu himself knew who Natsu really was.

Completely beyond her control and knowledge, tears left Lucy's eyes as she felt like the friendship between herself and her dearest friend was nothing more but a blatant lie; a lie that stung more than when she was betrayed by Michelle. It was as easy as breathing for E.N.D. to notice that his demon queen was crying; and the fact that those tears were not ones made of joy made the demon growl in anger.

And because of their close proximity, Lucy easily heard the growl from the Etherious. The Celestial Spirit Mage gasped abruptly and looked at E.N.D. with fear-filled eyes. E.N.D. felt his anger diminish as his demon queen stared at him with fear; a foreign feeling of protectiveness welling up inside him and overcoming his previous rage.

If it was anything else, whenever human or not, E.N.D. would revel that they would show him fear like the ants they were beneath his feet. But E.N.D. detested the sight before him: the one and only being that he ever loved showing him fear like the other ants; the mere thought leaving a bitter and unsavoury taste in his mouth.

E.N.D. bent down onto one knee, nearing his face and right hand/claw towards Lucy. The Celestial Spirit Mage closed her eyes in fearful anticipation, worried that her crying angered E.N.D. into hurting or (even worse) killing her.

And from afar, Erza also saw and interpreted E.N.D.'s actions as an attack. Despite feeling more exhausted than she ever felt before, Erza immediately began to run towards the demon and human, tapping into her Requip magic to change her current armour into her Black Wing Armour. Raising her sword high in the air, Erza let out a battle cry, although the demon and human that she was approaching were too caught up with each other to notice.

Lucy kept her eyes closed in the delusion that it would make the attack hurt less. But instead of feeling her skin and flesh being ripped or slashed, or even any pain at all, Lucy felt something brush against her eyes: wiping away her tears; something rough and scaly, yet applied gently.

Lucy opened her eyes to see E.N.D. staring at her, looking less angry and more content that she was no longer crying. Browsing through the memories of Natsu Dragneel, E.N.D. found out that not only did the incomplete shell of his true self also hated the thought of Lucy crying, but the sight of her crying was enough to make his temper rise by a few degrees.

However, E.N.D. didn't feel angered by those memories as he stared into the eyes of his precious demon queen. Lucy stared back at E.N.D., bewildered that he was staring at her with passion and desire. E.N.D. gently grasped Lucy's head with the same hand/claw that he used to wipe away her tears.

"Lucy..." E.N.D. murmured dreamingly, his lips parting and eyes close. Lucy felt like she was in a trance, losing control of her body, her own actions mimicking that of the demon before her. Lucy was well aware about what she was going to do: she was going to kiss E.N.D., the strongest and evilest demon in the world. And yet, Lucy also felt like she was in a twisted yet also inviting reverie.

And just as soon as E.N.D. and Lucy's lips were going to connect, they both then heard the approaching battle cry. Lucy looked towards the source of the battle cry in a mix of confusion (because she just broke out of a self-induced trance) and realization of what she was about to do. E.N.D. on the other hand looked towards the same source in anger and annoyance.

The source of the battle cry was, of course, Erza, the determination to save her friend was fierce in her eyes. "As long as the power within me to protect my friends remains strong, I won't let you hurt Lucy!" Erza yelled before continuing her battle cry, unaware that she made the demon (who was on a whole nother level of power) even angrier with what she implied in her statement.

How dare that woman even think that he would ever hurt Lucy! Even in a million years, he wouldn't even dream of laying a claw on Lucy with intensions to harm her. Pouring all of her strength into her arms, Erza swung down at E.N.D. with every last bit of her power. But it was fruitless, E.N.D. effortlessly caught Erza's sword in a single hand like it was nothing.

Erza then looked at E.N.D. in the eyes and was paralyzed in fear as she saw the nigh-uncontrollable rage in his eyes. "How dare you!" E.N.D. yelled, effortlessly pushing the sword back at Erza with enough force to send her back a few small feet. "How dare you think that I would ever hurt her!"

Erza pushed herself up to look at E.N.D., sweat coated her body, her heart racing frantically throughout her trembling body. E.N.D. stared down at the trembling mage scornfully, a fire of immense heat and power building up in his left hand.

"Anything and anyone, whenever they be an enemy or not, that come between me and Lucy will be something that I will personally incinerate!" E.N.D. threatened with anger present in his voice, before shooting out the fire of immense heat and power at Erza to further prove his point.

Fortunately for the Requip mage, Erza was able to change into her Adamantine Armour and put the shields in-front of her. The shields didn't protect Erza completely, as she still received a lot of damage, but it managed to subside the full force of the attack; subsided it enough to ensure that Erza had survived it.

Erza laid on the ground, her armour had been destroyed (although luckily and thankfully her Requip magic had made regular clothing cover her body, saving her from having the world see her nude body) and burns covered her body, albeit they were minor for the great Titania.

Jellal looked at Erza with wide eyes, a weird and foreign coursing through him. The sight of Erza lying on the ground, hurt with hopelessness in her eyes, brought back a memory that Jellal definitely didn't want to remember.

They were in the Tower of Heaven, or at least the gigantic lacrima that it had became after being exposed to Etherion, Erza crying over the dead body of Simon; one of the childhood friends that she had to run away from to protect. And as she did this, a powerful and evil monster looked at her with indifference; this time the monster was E.N.D.

But it in the Tower of Heaven it was himself. In the Tower of Heaven, Jellal had played the role of the being the powerful and evil monster because he was 'possessed' by 'Zeref'. The memory of when he made Erza cry filled Jellal with rage.

And as it was E.N.D. that brought back this memory, the aforementioned demon had became the subject of Jellal's rage.

"You bastard!" Jellal bellowed, using his Heavenly Body Magic to fly at E.N.D. as a high-speed blur of a yellow glow, becoming a 'meteor' by using the spell of the same name. The speeding 'meteor' clashed with E.N.D., although more accurately it could be said that the 'meteor' had punched E.N.D. in the stomach while flying upwards, sending the demon into the air.

With E.N.D. sent mid-air, the extremely irate Jellal continued to hit the Etherious with his Meteor spell, powerful hit after powerful hit in the blink of an eye. Of course, in his berserk state of mind, Jellal wasn't going to use just his Meteor spell against the demon.

"Impact Comet!" Jellal yelled, activating the Heavenly Body Magic spell. Truth be told, Jellal had never tried, nor even heard, of the spell before despite it being a part of his prime magic. It was just a spell that inserted itself into his head during his berserk rage, like his magic whispered it into his mind.

The 'Impact Comet' spell was much like Jellal's usual 'Meteor' spell, albeit the yellow glow of magic that surrounded Jellal was much bigger and brighter. As the name implied, the strength of the spell was much stronger than the other spell, among that the 'comet' left behind many mini stars that would burn and hurt whatever touched them.

The bright 'comet' hit E.N.D., sending him even higher into the air than he already was. E.N.D. fell to the ground, passing through many of the stars before making his own impact with the hard ground.

"Polaris A!" another spell that Jellal had never heard or known of before that seemingly brought itself into Jellal's head. Jellal crossed his arms above his head, much like his Altairis spell, except instead of a black orb that held tremendous amounts of gravity, it was a massive yellow orb of tremendous heat.

Jellal threw the yellow orb towards the seemingly unconscious E.N.D., but what the mage was unaware of in his blind rage was that E.N.D. appeared to be completely undamaged. There wasn't even a smidge of a burn mark where the stars from Jellal's Impact Comet had touched E.N.D.

The yellow orb made a big explosion when it made contact with E.N.D., followed with a loud 'boom' that could be heard all around Magnolia. The 'Polaris A' spell had left a small crater where it hit, leaving an 'unconscious' E.N.D. lying down in it.

Mard Geer stared at the crater that held the 'unconscious' E.N.D. incredulously, disbelieving in the 'damage' that Jellal inflicted upon the demon king. Of course, Mard Geer was right in his disbelief, albeit unaware of the fact that he was right.

Lucy, crazily enough, felt concern and worry for the demon; even though E.N.D. could be considered the pinnacle of evil, the Celestial Spirit mage still believed the Natsu was somewhere in there. At least, her heart told her that Natsu was somewhere in there. If Lucy was indubitable about anything concerning Natsu, it was that he-!

Lucy shook her head; she shouldn't think of how she felt for Natsu, least not now.

Although the way E.N.D. behaved towards her, with what was gonna be a kiss, and the fact that he pushed her away before he was attack by Jellal...!

Lucy wished like hell that the stress of... well, _everything_ was going to her head.

"You made Erza cry!" Jellal snarled furiously with proverbial venom towards the Etherious laying in the crater, unaware that said Etherious was smirking. "What's more, you reminded me of one of the worst days of my life!" Jellal held out a hand towards E.N.D., although the palm was facing the aforementioned demon, a golden magic circle of immense power appearing from the same palm. "I'll make you pay! Abyss Break!"

A dark blast shot out of the magic circle and towards E.N.D., creating an even bigger explosion than the one created by 'Polaris A', leaving a bigger crater filled to the brim with fire. Jellal took deep breathes to expel the withered remains of his rage, kept afloat in the air by the miniscule remains of his magic.

As Jellal felt his rage finally simmer, he was struck with pain and exhaustion that pulsed through his body. Crap, the day caught up with his body...!

His fight against Sawyer, Sorano, Erik, and Macbeth. Helping Erza in her fight against Kyôka (with the aid of the newly redeemed Oración Seis). His fight against Mard Geer. And now this!

Jellal's battle wounds and magic exertion had finally caught up with him, the sensation of falling overcoming his body as his magic could no longer hold him in the air. Jellal just closed his eyes, ready for the sharp impact of the ground. But, to the surprise of the Heavenly Body mage, he didn't feel the hard ground or any pain whatsoever.

Instead Jellal fell onto something soft... and fleshy; something soft and fleshy that wrapped its arms around him. Jellal opened his eyes to see human skin, damaged with minor burns, but still obviously human.

Jellal also noticed that there was some clothing that surrounded the skin, damaged and burnt slightly much like the skin it surrounded. Jellal looked up to see the face of none other Erza; a face he could never forget.

Erza's face held an expression of relief, a gleam almost shining in her eyes. The blue-haired Heavenly Body mage felt his blood move to his cheeks, heating them as they gained a red tint of colour.

Jellal and Erza's tender moment was, however, short lived as they were interrupted by a groan of displeasure and disappointment that came from the burning crater. The two mages looked at the crater, the fire that was present there began to swirl like a vortex until it was fully consumed by E.N.D.

The demon king didn't have a single scratch or bruise on his body, the efforts of the Heavenly Body mage had proven to be fruitless.

"Honestly, I'm rather disappointed." E.N.D. tutted towards Jellal, his arms crossed as he frowned. "I know you humans are lesser beings, but I still expected _something_ from a former Wizard Saint! I barely even felt a tickle...!"

E.N.D. then felt an unusually cold hand suddenly touched him on the back, the temperature of the hand decreasing more and more as magic surged into it. The demon looked back to see Gray, the Ice-Make mage turned Devil Slayer, a droplet or two of a tear in both his eyes.

"I'm sorry Natsu." Gray said, his voice slightly broken as more and more droplets escaped his eyes. "But I promised my dad, and I can't let you hurt my friends."

Gray summoned his Ice Devil Slayer Magic (or at least what remained of his magic) into the hand that was touching E.N.D.'s back, a glow of purple light emitting from the same hand as more and more magic surged into it. Devil Slayer Ice began to from on E.N.D.'s back and feet, much to the demon's surprise and terror.

Or so that is how it seemed.

"Is this...?! Oh no, the Devil Slayer was really a threat!" E.N.D. seemingly screamed as his entire pelvic area and everything underneath was frozen in Devil Slayer Ice, although no-one noticed that a smirk kept twitching in and out of formation on his face. Gray had noticed that, despite his seeming worry, E.N.D. wasn't using any magic or curses to at least try to counterattack the Ice Devil Slayer Magic, but the mage just assumed that it was a side effect of his magic.

"This cannot be... the end of me...!" E.N.D. screamed, his left arm reaching out in the air as the other arm was frozen by the ever freezing ice. E.N.D's screams died down and stopped completely as his head became frozen; the last thing remaining was a claw reaching for the sky until it froze. It seemed as though E.N.D. was defeated.

Seemed.

 _"I'll humour those humans with their delusions of grandeur, at least before this ice does anything serious to me."_

Gray removed his hand from the purple ice shard created from his Ice Devil Slayer Magic, feeing low on magic and physically and emotionally exhausted. Gray looked down at the ground, regretful of what he had to do and unaware that he was walking forwards without realising.

It wasn't until Erza pulled Gray into her chest area (above the breasts) that Gray realised he had walked forward. Gray put his face up, looking Erza in the eye, expecting her to be mad but instead saw sympathy in her eyes.

"It's okay Gray." Erza said in a surprisingly soothing voice, albeit there were droplets of tears in her eyes also. Gray was surprised, to say the least, he expected Erza to be at least slightly angry for what he just did to someone who had been a friend of theirs since childhood.

"I... I didn't have much of a choice." Gray said in a broken voice, feeling a sense of self-loathing and regret. "I know he was our friend, but he was also E.N.D., so-!" Gray was interrupted when he felt a hand on his shoulder, the Ice-Make mage looked to see that the owner of the hand was Jellal, the Heavenly Body mage also held a look of sympathy in his eyes.

"You had to do what you had to do." Jellal said calmly as he slowly removed his hand from Gray's shoulder. Gray moved his head to look back at a teary eyed yet smiling Erza.

"What you did wasn't easy; as much as you two were at each other's necks, you were still best friends." Erza soothed with empathy once again, a touch of sadness becoming clearer in her voice. "If you didn't do what you did, all of humanity and the world may have suffered."

"It may be hard explaining this to the rest of Fairy Tail, but they may eventually understand." Gray realised that it would, in fact, be hard to explain this to the rest of Fairy Tail, they are family and he just ridded one of their own, one of _his_ own, of their own life. He knew that the guild would forgive him in the end but...!

"What about Lucy?" Gray asked. Erza's smile faltered, becoming more of a sad expression. Gray and Erza both knew that Natsu and Lucy saw each other as more than friends. Heck, everyone in Fairy Tail knew it except for the two mages themselves; both of their own feelings and the feelings of the other.

Gray felt that, at least for the sake of being a good friend, that he would have to give Lucy a bigger apology than the rest of the Fairy Tail guild.

However, before Gray could ponder of any apology for the blonde Celestial Spirit mage, he (as well as Jellal and Erza) sense a dark aura slowly approaching them. The three mages turned towards the aura to see a purple-haired demon glaring at them in absolute furiousness.

* * *

Mard Geer watched in disbelief, it shouldn't be possible for something as lowly as a human, Demon Slayer or not, to be capable of defeating Lord E.N.D.

And yet there stood E.N.D.; a fire demon who was the strongest of all of Zeref's creations, frozen in a purple shard of ice created by a _human_ of all creatures. Mard Geer felt even more anger and frustration than before; it was bad enough when one human foiled his otherwise fool-proof plan, but now that a human has ruined everything _after_ his plan has succeeded...!

It seemed as though the universe was trying to decide if today would be the best or worst day of Mard Geer's life.

Mard Geer stomped towards the mages, curse energy building up in his clenched fists as his negative emotions were reaching their peak. A dark aura surrounded Mard Geer, the demon's glaring eyes were almost burning into the humans that glared back.

"This is unacceptable!" Mard Geer growled, the curse energy that was seeping through his fists rising slowly. "This cannot be possible! Mard Geer refuses to believe that Lord E.N.D. could be defeated by a mere human!"

Gray was about to retaliate, either in an attack or a retort about how the 'mere humans' have defeated the Nine Demon Gates of Tartaros, but was stopped when he heard a voice that shouldn't be there.

"Ah, so it seems you _are_ at least somewhat competent, guess you do have some worth after all." the voice of E.N.D. spoke from behind Gray, sounding a little strange (or stranger depending on who you ask) due to being imprisoned in ice. Gray, Erza and Jellal looked back at the giant block of ice that held E.N.D., their eyes wide in fear. The giant shard of purple ice that contained E.N.D. was beginning to crack before their eyes.

"N... no!" Gray muttered, subconsciously taking a step back in fear. "It can't be that-!"

The shard of Devil Slayer ice containing E.N.D. burst, dozens and dozens of tiny ice shard flying everywhere as the fire demon landed on his feet, only retaining a few small scratches and bruises.

"H-how did you do that?!" Gray questioned, incredulous that E.N.D. was capable of not only freeing himself from the Ice Devil Slayer Magic, but appeared as though that same magic was ineffective towards him. "How did you just brush off my magic."

"Did you really believe that your magic made you an automatic threat towards me?" E.N.D. asked rhetorically, looking down at the ice mage before him. "Having magic that was made specifically to kill demons doesn't mean you can kill any demon."

"Another important aspect is that you have to be strong enough to kill said demon. And let me tell you this," E.N.D. continued, smirking as the small scratches and bruises on his body disappeared via regeneration. "The difference in our power levels is too huge for me to see you as a threat."

E.N.D. flew up into the air, looking down the mages, the demon raising his right claw into the air, a fireball forming in his outstretched palm. The fireball began to grow, and grew and grew until it was twice the size of E.N.D. himself.

"If you really believe you are strong enough to destroy me, then try to survive this." E.N.D. shouted towards the three mages, particularly Gray, effortlessly holding the fire with literally a single hand as it became three times his size. Gray's eyes widened as he figured out what E.N.D. was going to do (albeit, it wasn't really that hard to figure out what E.N.D. was going to do anyways).

"Get back!" Gray ordered. It was a rather 'in the moment' action, but Erza and Jellal ended up complying anyways. Gray felt like hell, he barely even had the energy to stand up, but he still channelled as much magic as possible into his hands. E.N.D. merely chuckled darkly at the human's rather futile effort, throwing the fireball at him and his friend with ease. "Ice Devil's Zeroth Protection Shield!"

A gigantic, purple shield of an appearance that was the same as Gray's 'Ice-Make: Shield' had appeared before the Ice-Make, Heavenly Body and Requip mage, its size almost comparing to E.N.D.'s fireball.

The fireball made contact to the ice shield, said shield almost looking as though it would be able to stop the fireball. Emphases on the 'almost looking'.

The ice shield did manage to subdue a part of the fireball, but the shield still broke; a fiery explosion destroyed the shield, sending the three mages back a few feet. Their bodies were on the ground; they were alive but only because the shield subdued part of the fireball and its explosion.

Gray shakily opened his eyes to see the hard, rocky ground. Turning his eyes up, Gray saw E.N.D. slowly descend onto the ground, a small distance from the humans due to his fireball attack. Gray tried to get back on his feet, but as soon as he pushed his hand against the ground to get up, pain rippled from and through his hand and shoulder joint.

Screaming in pain, Gray immediately fell back onto the ground, beginning to notice the burn marks on his body. The Ice-Make mage realised that he was in no condition to fight; aside from barely having enough energy to even keep his eyes open, he felt like he was just got body slammed by Laxus.

Five times. In a row. After being beaten up by Erza and Mirajane.

Gray then heard two people groan and grunt, one being female and the other male, as well as the sound of bodies getting off the ground. While it was a little painful, Gray managed to move his body (or at least his head) to see Erza and Jellal standing up. Although, to say they were standing up was a bit of an exaggeration.

While Jellal was definitely standing, his knees were slightly bent with one hand grasping it while another grasped the side of his body. His breathing was rather rough and even sounded a little raspy. The Heavenly Body mage had multiple small burn marks donning him from head to toe (approximately, while his clothes were singed they were still intact).

Erza stood with one leg straight and the other one bent, the bent one showing a little purple bruise, using a rather short looking bō (or at least short considering how tall a bō usually is) to support her own weight. Strands of Erza's red hair covered her face, to the point where Gray was barely able to notice small droplets of blood drip down her left temple. Much like Jellal, Erza's clothes were singed but still intact.

"Hmm..." E.N.D. hummed, staring down at the S-Class mage and former Wizard Saint, slightly surprised and impressed that they were capable of standing up after that fireball attack. "I must admit that I am relatively impressed at your current states, Jellal and Erza. I'm not surprised that you two survived, but I expected you two to be more like your friend."

Gray was suddenly pulled off of the ground, his arm was put around Jellal's shoulder to help him stand up. The Ice-Make mage turned Devil Slayer silently thanked the Heavenly Body mage, but still focused on the descending demon.

"I will admit that I'm surprised that _you_ survived the spell, Gray." E.N.D. said, his eyes shifting to just Gray before focusing back to all three of the mages. "Then again, I was barely using a fraction of my true power."

The heat around E.N.D. began to intensify as the demon started to unleash more of his power. Flames ignited from E.N.D.'s body until they surrounded him like an aura of power, giving him the appearance one may expect from a fire demon.

" _This_ is power. _This_ is why we demons are beyond humans. _This_ is the power of an indisputable being." E.N.D. said, feeling triumph as he saw the fear in the humans' eyes, even as they tried to hide it from him.

However, with E.N.D. being too engrossed with the fear in the humans' eyes, Gray, Erza and Jellal being too intimidated by the aforementioned demon's power and Mard Geer feeling a mix of amazement, surprise and a odd type of fear, no one noticed Lucy sneaking pass E.N.D.

She had an idea of some sort; it wasn't exactly a smart idea, in fact it was actually rather foolhardy and dumb, and basically anyone could point it out to her. Lucy didn't need hindsight to know how stupid her idea was, but all things considered it was the best idea she had so far. At least the best plausible idea. Lucy bit her lip so hard it could almost bleed, she just hoped that she didn't misunderstand E.N.D.'s characteristics enough for it to fail...!

If she fails to protect her friends, at least she'll die trying.

"You humans are overconfident and cocky, believing that you could ever win in a war against demons." E.N.D. sneered, his flames suddenly disappearing from around him, his eyes shadowed by his hair as his grin slightly grew. "I would call it a shame that you died by learning this lesson, but that would imply that there was a meaning behind your existences."

There was a moment of silence as Gray, Erza and Jellal began to take in what E.N.D. said. They were so low on magic that there was barely anything they could to stop E.N.D., not that there was anything they could do even if they weren't low on magic.

This was the end.

"Fire Devil's Rage!" E.N.D. yelled, releasing fire from his mouth, much like Natsu's 'Fire Dragon's Roar', heading towards the free mages. Suddenly a figure of familiar shape jumped in front of the oncoming fire, their arms outstretched as to protect the other mages. Erza's eyes widened as she realised that the figure was Lucy.

"Lucy!" Gray and Erza screamed as their Celestial Spirit mage friend jumped in front of the attack. The Devil Slayer and Requip mage almost reached out for Lucy, but were stopped by a loud and rather panicked 'No!' that sounded like it came from E.N.D.

The oncoming fire abruptly turned to the left, just missing Lucy, the fire breaking into the ground and burning it; like a narrow, stretched crater. The mages could see E.N.D.; his eyes wide, sweat on his forehead as he seemed to be taking deep breaths.

The Etherious suddenly turned into fire, kind of like spontaneous combustion, the fire that E.N.D. turned into suddenly engulfing Lucy in the blink of a eye and returning to the area where E.N.D. stood before becoming fire. The fire dissipated, revealing E.N.D. and a surprised Lucy held tightly in his arms, neither of them looking burnt or singed in even the slightest.

Lucy's startled eyes were met with E.N.D.'s: originating in their worried wideness from before, suddenly turning into calm relief and then turning into slight anger.

Lucy felt afraid from the little glare that E.N.D. was giving her, which wasn't helped by the fact that the demon was holding her so close to him that her breasts were practically squeezed against his bare chest and that his grip was so powerful that the mage wouldn't even be able to budge out of it.

"Do you understand how stupid that was?" E.N.D. asked, teardrops seeping from his eyes at the fear that he nearly killed her because of her decision. "Do you realise how easily that spell could have killed you?"

"I... I just wanted to protect my friends!" Lucy teared, unconsciously sinking her face in E.N.D.'s chest. The demon king's face softened as his grip loosened on Lucy, albeit his wings surrounded her protectively, earning an incredulous stare from Gray, Erza, Jellal and Mard Geer.

Lucy suddenly moved her head back and stared at E.N.D. in the eyes, catching the Etherious off guard, teardrops surrounding her eyes even though she stopped crying. "Please... don't kill my friends."

E.N.D. narrowed his eyes, pondering; he did despise all humans (with the exception of his demon queen, of course) and would rather have them dead. On the other hand, it can be a compromise: she gets what she wants and he gets what he wants in return. "Fine then, I will spare your friends' lives. But only on one condition."

"What's the condition?" Lucy asked, not missing even a beat. E.N.D. merely cupped her face in his claws with absolute gentleness, despite how sharp the aforementioned claws where. He gazed passionately into her eyes for an uncertain amount of time before responding softly.

"You must become my demon queen."

* * *

 **Author's Note: I really don't know how to start off stories (or Author's Notes for that matter, lol). Anyways, this is The Demon Queen of E.N.D., a Fairy Tail fanfic written by me (Meta Bunny).**

 **As the name implies, that main paring of this will be EndLu (E.N.D. x Lucy), which is basically Nalu but Natsu is stronger/smarter/darker as well as a demon king (give or take). I do ship Nalu hard (#1 Fairy Tail couple, IMO), but I feel like there isn't enough E.N.D. x Lucy fics on this website (but that's just me, maybe other people think there are loads of EndLu fics on this website, lol), plus the idea got in my head so I made this.**

 **This probably won't be that popular of a fanfic, at least until a long while passes (^^;).**

 **Sorry that like a quarter of this was just exposition, I just felt that the information regarding Natsu and E.N.D. needed to be explained to someone in story (^^;). Though this chapter could be summed up as this: Fight scene. Exposition. Another fight scene (yeah it was mostly a Curb-Stomp Battle, but still...).**

 **On the topic of this chapter, it is a lot longer than expected. In fact this is currently the longest chapter I have ever written so far (^^;). I'm aware that this could pass for two or three chapters, but I made it this long so I could put in the summary ('cause I suck at those). I'll probably have to have the other chapters be very long, like this one.**

 **Like I said at the beginning of this chapter, this is an AU of sorts (then again, technically all fanfics are an AU, no matter how close they are to the original material); such as Jellal and the reformed Oración Seis helping Erza defeat Kyôka (I'll probably write in that scene in another chapter, maybe in a flashback).**

 **Also, concerning the differences to cannon in this, the soul of Precht/Hades didn't speak to Natsu and Lucy after the defeat of Franmalth, so Makarov is with the other members of Fairy Tail, instead of the ruins of the guild.**

 **You've most likely noticed that I created some original spells for this chapter, that's because I'm hoping to create some original spells (and maybe even Magic and Curses) for this fanfic.**

 **Also, if you haven't noticed yet, I know about Fairy Tail because of the anime (even though I don't really consider myself to be an anime fan) so the Key of the Starry Sky arc and Eclipse Celestial Spirits arc are cannon in 'The Demon Queen of E.N.D.'**

 **Furthermore, I watch the anime through the English dub so I'll be using the mannerisms they use in the English dub (although I will use the way Juvia refers to herself in the third person and her usage of Japanese honorifics (and maybe Gajeel's 'Gihihi' laugh) since I see them a lot in fanfics). Sorry, I'm just more used to their English mannerisms (^^;).**

 **Can't think of anything else so I bid you adieu.**


	2. Demon Vs Dragon

"So that's the power of E.N.D." Acnologia commented, albeit only to himself, having watched everything that happened between the humans and demons. "That power...! It seems as though one of Zeref's pathetic demons could actually be worth my while."

Acnologia seemed to ponder; he was far stronger than anything else in the world, an achievement that he was prideful of, that left him without a single challenge in the world nor someone who could remind him of the thrill of the fight that he loved so long ago, much to his boredom.

Even the second strongest being, the so-called 'strongest mage' Zeref, was barely a match for him. But this, one of the puny mage's creations, had a power level that could actually prove itself to be a match for him. A wide grin grew on Acnologia's scaly face (remember that he's in his dragon form) at the thought of _finally_ finding a _real_ worthy match for the first time in decades.

Acnologia's distracted state would have made for a perfect moment for Igneel to strike at him, but the fire dragon was overcame with emotions. Sorrow for the loss of his 'son'. Fear for what E.N.D. will bring upon both humanity and the world. And a pessimistic view on all chances at stopping the demon.

Igneel did manage to subdue E.N.D. for a good couple of days a few centuries ago, but even then he also needed rest for at least two weeks; it was an inconclusive draw without any real winner.

But back then Igneel was whole; a dragon worthy of the title/epithet 'The Fire Dragon King', he was able to fight on an equal footing with E.N.D., even if it was partially because of his power to absorb fire. But this was different: he was now nothing more but a part of his soul; not only was he no longer as powerful as he used to be but he could consider himself lucky if he lives long enough to see the sun rise one last time.

With him being left as nothing else but a dying soul, he could stay completely out of harm and still die.

To make matters worse, even through his clouded emotions Igneel could tell that E.N.D. was stronger than since their last battle, and that's _without_ including the newfound Fire Dragon Slayer Magic.

But the biggest problem in any hope of defeating E.N.D. was that the demon was Natsu. Back when he and E.N.D. fought, Igneel only thought and believed that E.N.D. was another demon and nothing more. But this was different now, Igneel now knew that E.N.D. was not only part human (or at least was), but was the same human that Igneel loved and cared for as his own child.

How can Igneel be content with knowing that he attacked his son, even with what he is now? Nevertheless, he can't just let E.N.D. rain down destruction upon humanity like those many years ago.

"I'll see if E.N.D. is truly a match for me, to see the full magnitude of his power." Igneel heard Acnologia say to himself, the black dragon seemingly having forgotten about Igneel's presence entirely in favour of a worthy opponent in E.N.D.

Igneel seemingly paused from Acnologia's statement; two of his biggest enemies where most likely going to battle, one being a dragon that he wanted gone, and the other being a demon that he no longer wanted dead. One was going to come out of the battle as a winner, a winner that Igneel would need to fight to protect the world.

A thought then occurred to Igneel: what if Acnologia and E.N.D. joined forces? If those two monsters joined forces... nothing in the world, neither human nor dragon, would be able to oppose against them and survive.

As Acnologia flew towards E.N.D. (albeit rather leisurely), many negative outcomes of what could be of their battle occurred in Igneel's head. Igneel began to notice the other dragons, Grandeeney, Metalicana, Weisslogia and Skiadrum, flying in from the distance. Igneel also noticed that Natsu's friends from his guild, Fairy Tail, were crowded together to regroup from the war with Tartaros.

Igneel knew that he would have to request the help of his friends and Natsu's friends, whom Igneel saw as his own friends by extension, in case of any dastardly outcome. The fire dragon just hoped that Acnologia would win but no longer possess the energy to kill E.N.D.

If E.N.D. was beaten but still alive, then there was at least an iota of a chance of getting Natsu back through _some_ way.

* * *

"Y-your what?" Lucy stammered, a deep red blush spreading around her cheeks and her heart beat rising greatly at the implication of what he just said. The demon merely cocked up an eyebrow, as if she wasn't understanding something that was obvious and clear.

"My demon queen, of course." E.N.D. replied, wrapping his arms around Lucy, her head and his own being so close their noses were practically touching. Unbeknownst to E.N.D. and Lucy, all of the four other individuals (especially Mard Geer) had their jaws dropped at what was happening; incredulous of what was going on before their eyes.

"You see, Lucy, the certain someone I had a premonition of was you." E.N.D. explained, a slight purr building in his throat as the blush on his demon queen's face intensified from his words. "I had a premonition that I would have you ruling by my side. From these memories that I'm seeing, I can tell that while I slept in my tome, the husk of my true self had many fond moments with you."

Lucy stared at E.N.D., her blush practically taking up half of her face from what the demon said. The Celestial Spirit mage opened her mouth, about to say something, but was interrupted.

"Don't do it Lucy!" Gray yelled, a stick made from his Ice-Make Magic appearing in his hand to keep him standing up without the help of Jellal. "I know he was once Natsu, maybe the charcoal-brained idiot is still there, but right now he's a dangerous fire demon and the apparent lord of the Etherious, including Tartaros; he could hurt or torture or ki-"

Gray was interrupted by a deep, angry growl from E.N.D., how dare that human suggest that he would ever hurt his demon queen; his mate! Humans would never understand that hurting the mate of a demon is akin to hurting the demon themself. In fact, hurting the mate of a demon would be akin to a death match with that demon.

"Watch your mouth, Nudist!" E.N.D. snarled, flames surrounding his claws. "You might have forgotten that I won't let anything or anyone get between me and Lucy, especially someone who would dare believe I would hurt even a hair on my mate's head!"

E.N.D. was about to send a fireball towards the Devil Slayer, one that would surely leave him as nothing but a charred corpse, but was stopped when Lucy shifted in front of him, her arms outstretched like earlier. Right, their agreement; it was easy to forget about that when someone tries to get between you and your mate. Although E.N.D. would admit that his demon queen looked really cute with that blush on her face, especially as she tried to look serious with that same face.

"Lord E.N.D.!" Mard Geer shouted, approaching the demon king and his mate, his expression of incredulousness remaining on his face. "You're not going to let these humans, these threats to our entire plans, live because some... some _floozy_ wants you to?!"

E.N.D. was instantly overcome in rage that someone, another demon nevertheless, had insulted his mate. Within the blink of an eye, E.N.D. had let loose a fierce and mighty roar as he punched the self-entitled 'Underworld King' in the face with a flaming fist, knocking the Definitive Demon onto his back. "Don't _ever_ call my demon queen a floozy!"

Mard Geer then sat up, his face becoming a mixture of anger and disbelief, thorns poking out of the ground near him. One would suspect that the thorns were Mard Geer's doing, but that wasn't exactly the case. As soon as Mard Geer stood up, the thorns around him suddenly penetrated him.

Mard Geer let out a yelp of pain, his expression twisting into one of pure confusion. "What... what is this? Mard Geer doesn't remember...!" Mard Geer's eyes widened in a sudden realisation, turning his head up to look at E.N.D. "L-Lord E.N.D. can use the Thorn Curse?!"

"Of course I can, I _am_ the one who taught you how to use it." E.N.D. responded, matter-of-faculty, glaring at Mard Geer before making a 'tsk', the thorns that penetrated Mard Geer removing themselves from him and returning into the ground. "I have more important things to do than punish you, _that_ can wait for later." E.N.D. said before facing back to his demon queen.

"So, will you become my demon queen in the compromise of me sparing your friends' lives?" E.N.D. asked, holding out his claw towards her like a handshake (or clawshake in this case). Lucy was silent for a moment, looking at the ground as she pondered, before looking up at E.N.D.

"Yes." the Celestial Spirit mage answered, shaking her hand with his claw in agreement.

"Good." E.N.D. purred, wrapping his arms around Lucy, pulling her closer to him until her breasts were squeezed tightly against his bare chest and their noses _were_ touching. E.N.D. pressed his lips against Lucy's, kissing her. For some reason that she couldn't understand, Lucy kissed back; embracing his burning passion. E.N.D.'s tongue pressed against Lucy's lips, requesting access to the rest of her mouth, desiring to explore more of his mate's body through all possible areas.

Lucy complied, opening her mouth to let the Etherious' hot tongue enter and explore her mouth, the aforementioned hot tongue wrapping around her own; requesting a playmate.

Lucy once again complied to E.N.D.'s wish, his and her own tongue playing together as their kissing intensified. Everyone nearby watched the scene before them, with the exception of Erza who was looking at the ground with wide eyes and a deep red blush on her face, feeling a little awkward of the somewhat erotic scene. Even the approaching Acnologia felt a little awkward of what the human and demon's snog could lead to.

Lucy's cheeks felt hot as her blush burned on her face, E.N.D.'s hot tongue and hot breath filling her mouth as their kiss became more and more intense; a foreign feeling welling up and permeating throughout her body.

It was odd how E.N.D. touched Lucy and her body; he was a being that could and would annihilate her with even the mere flick of his wrist. But despite how much power he could have over her, how he could dominate her with ease, the demon had instead treated her with gentleness; his tongue played with her own without becoming rough, his sharp and dangerous claws rubbed her creamy skin with utmost carefulness, even as he squeezed her body against his own he was careful to make sure that he wouldn't accidentally hurt her.

Lucy and E.N.D. then separated their heads for air, a thin trail of hot saliva being produced from between their mouths as they separated. Lucy and E.N.D. looked at each other in the eye as they regained air, Lucy's breathing was quick and shallow while E.N.D.'s breathing was slow and deep.

"Damn!" E.N.D. breathed, a red hot blush on his face as he continued to breathe in air, a rapt grin growing on his face. "I knew I made the right choice when I picked you as my mate, but now I'm certain you're the one I want."

Lucy's skin was so flushed by this point that she wouldn't be doubtful that her cheeks would stay red and hot indefinitely. E.N.D. moved his head to the left side of Lucy's neck, hot breath being blown on it before a hot tongue started to lick the area sensually. E.N.D. couldn't help but purr as he heard Lucy let out a little moan; the sound was a melody for his ears.

"Keep your claws... of off... my master...!"

Lucy and E.N.D.'s actions were put to a halt as a familiar voice strained out those words. Lucy and E.N.D. looked to where the voice came from; a human sized golden glow, like stardust, that turned into Loke. A very beaten Loke, that is.

Lucy's eyes widened in horror at the sight of her friend's half-destroyed appearance, the act of being blown up by Jackal had left the Celestial Spirit with a horrid appearance. The left half of Loke's face had been destroyed, looking like a featureless golden light, a contrast to the other side of his face which looked like usual aside from a few little scratches on it. His right arm and hand had been completely destroyed, left as nothing more but a small shaft of light. His left leg had been destroyed yet his foot was somehow still intact, connected to the rest of his body through a streak of light that was as long as his leg, possibly the remains of his leg.

Among that there were many cuts around his body and suit, leaving little rays of light in their openings, a big and noticeable one across his stomach. Outside of that, the only other feature of him that was different was that he didn't have his usual azure-tinted sunglasses on.

"Loke...!" Lucy gasped, noticing that Loke was in obvious pain being outside of the Celestial Spirit World in his damaged state, through the use of his own power nevertheless. "Y-You need to return to the Cele-!"

"I won't!" Loke growled, keeping fierce and threatening eyes on the Etherious who wanted to claim his master as his mate. "I promised you that I would be your knight, your protector, and I won't let any demon, even if he was once our friend, take you away."

E.N.D. shifted in-front of his demon queen, returning the growl and glare towards the Zodiac Celestial Spirit tenfold, fire surrounding his arms and hands as he released some of his power once again. Loke felt himself break into a cold sweat just from E.N.D.'s glare alone, the power that the demon king was exhibiting being almost crushing from its presence alone, made worse by the spirit's weakened state.

E.N.D. was ready to incinerate the lion constellation and send him back to the Celestial Spirit World, make him pay for trying to come between him and his one and only queen, but had been stopped when a loud and new voice had spoke.

"Don't waste your power on something as weak and pitiful as him, demon," E.N.D. turned around to find the source of the voice. The source of the voice was a gigantic, black dragon with blue, spiralling markings around its body. With or without the need and use of Natsu's memories, E.N.D. was able to deduce the black dragon as Acnologia. "I want to see it up close."

"Acnologia!" Lucy shrieked, involuntarily moving behind E.N.D. for protection. Lucy didn't know why she moved behind E.N.D. for protection, maybe it was because he was apparently in love with her or maybe it was because he was the nearest thing to hide behind, but it seemed like the Etherious didn't mind.

"Crap." Gray cursed, clearly not happy about the dragon's arrival. "And we were lucky enough to survive the first time."

"Silence! I care not for you, Ice Mage!" Acnologia growled, the white and beady eyes of his dragon form leering at the aforementioned ice mage before his eyes returned to E.N.D. "The only entities deserving of my attention are those who could be an actual match for me, the only one in the vicinity seemingly being E.N.D.!"

It was then that before the eyes of the humans and demons, Acnologia had glowed a light blue colour before changing his form. It was hard to see the actual transformation as his light blue glow had made it nigh impossible to see any details, but the outcome was the same nevertheless; Acnologia had changed into the form of a human; his true form.

Acnologia's human form was a rather muscular young man with long, dark blue hair and dark-coloured skin that bears the same spiralling, blue markings of his previous dragon form. Alongside, Acnologia donned a high collared, black cloak and sharp claws around his neck, like a necklace of sorts, as well as a sash around his waist with black, baggy pants.

While Lucy, Gray, Erza, Jellal, Loke and Mard Geer were surprised, or at least startled, by Acnologia's sudden transformation. E.N.D., on the other hand, had a rather indifferent expression, seemingly unsurprised or uncaring of the aforementioned transformation.

Despite her initial shock, Lucy was thankful that Acnologia's human form had clothes (since Transformation Magic tended to also affect the clothes of the caster) since she would rather not see him in the nude.

"So this is your human form; your true form...!" E.N.D. commented, making a huff of disinterest shortly thereafter. "If changing back into a human is so easy, then why do you tend to take that dragon form?"

"I only take that form when I'm annihilating dragons and all that remains of them, including their slayers." Acnologia answered, his expression temporarily turning into one of disgust at the mention of dragons, unspoken hatred in his eyes. "I honestly prefer being in my human form; dragons are the absolute scum of the world, even the so-called 'kindest' of them are reprehensible."

Acnologia grew mad at the thought of dragons, the same despicable abominations that destroyed everything and everyone that he knew and loved. In his rage, Acnologia had let loose some of his immense power, a light purple-ish aura surrounding the Dragon Slayer's body as even the mere release of his power was enough to make the ground shake with a tremor.

Lucy shook as Acnologia released waves of immense magical power in rage, taking hold of E.N.D.'s back just to remain standing on the ground. E.N.D. easily noticed his demon queen's hold on his back, taking her hand into his claw, massaging it until his demon queen was seemingly calm.

"This power!" Jellal whimpered, sweating from the overwhelming power that the centuries old dragon slayer emitted. "This is the greatest magic power I have ever felt."

Even Gray and Erza, two mages who knew of the magic power of Gildarts and Makarov, the Fairy Tail ace and guild master respectively, were sweating from head to toe from Acnologia's unreal levels of magic power. Had he always been this powerful? Was his power just as strong as it is now as it was when he attacked them on Tenrou Island?

Loke stared at Acnologia with absolute fear, even after knowing many powerful mages throughout his many years as a Celestial Spirit, Loke had never even heard of a magic power that was even remotely similar to what Acnologia possessed.

Even Mard Geer was horrified by this magic power, the Etherious seemingly frozen in fear.

Acnologia had noticed that, unlike the others, E.N.D. wasn't quivering or sweating or even paralyzed in fear. In fact, the demon was even comforting one the humans by massaging her hand and letting her hold onto him for support. Although, there was something about the female that seemed familiar to Acnologia. Nevertheless, Acnologia's waves of immense power began to diminish until it was no longer there, the Dragon Slayer clearly had calmed down from whatever anger the memory of dragons had brought upon him.

"It appears as though you and I are on a similar calibre of power, E.N.D." Acnologia grinned, enthusiasm for a good battle in his wild eyes. "You must battle me, E.N.D.! Give me the worthy challenge that I have been waiting for far too long for!"

"No, I have more important things to do with my time than waste it on entertaining some ragamuffin, old geezer looking for a good brawl." E.N.D. rejected straightforwardly in a bored voice, albeit his eyes seemed to hold the same scorn and hatred that one would suspect he would aim at a human before they were shadowed by his pink hair. "However, there is an exception to my reasons...!"

"And what is that?" Acnologia asked, his initial excitement having been replaced by a bitterness at E.N.D.'s rejection; that pathetic little demon should feel _honoured_ that Acnologia chose _him_ to be a worthy match!

" _ **You made my demon queen cry!**_ " E.N.D. yelled, his voice having became much deeper and demonic; like something not of this world. The demon could remember it all crystal-clear through Natsu's memories: _They were on Tenrou Island, resting up after having defeated Grimoire Heart, and then Acnologia attacked them, withstood everything they threw at him, leaving them without a chance. It was hopeless against Acnologia, and that was why his demon queen cried_. E.N.D.'s red eyes burned brightly with a fire within, no longer shadowed by his hair, the intensity of his angry stare catching even Acnologia off guard. " ** _I will purge you from this world in retribution!_** "

And then, faster than any human, demon or even dragon could comprehend, E.N.D. punched Acnologia in the face, the immense force of the punch sending the Dragon Slayer away by a sizeable distance.

The Dragon King landed on his back, but quickly got back on his feet, even as his eyes stayed wide in his shock. Acnologia's eyes were staring into nothing but empty space and his mouth was agape as his hand trailed his face around the cheek that E.N.D. punched. After a second or two, Acnologia's gaped mouth turned into a wide smile as an almost maniacal laugh erupted and rumbled from deep within his chest.

"Finally, this is what I have been looking for!" Acnologia yelled in excitement, immense power once again surrounding him; the ground beneath him shaking in a small tremor. "Finally a worthy match, finally someone who I can use my true power against!"

"Mard Geer." E.N.D. called, even as his voice had returned to 'normal' it held an undertone of anger.

"Y-Yes, Lord E.N.D.?" Mard Geer responded shakily, the notion of E.N.D.'s anger being absolutely terrifying towards the Definitive Demon for a reason that he would rather not remember.

"You believe yourself to be a strong and capable demon," the fire demon continued, turning his head so he could see both Mard Geer and Lucy at the corner of his eye "Do you not?"

"Yes, M-Mard Geer is strong; only a few are above him." Mard Geer responded again, referring to himself in the third person, as usual.

"Then protect my demon queen or else, I don't want her getting hurt or stolen from me while I deal with this lizard." E.N.D. commanded. Mard Geer was about to open his mouth, most likely to disagree with E.N.D.'s command, but closed it immediately as soon as E.N.D. turned his head around even more to give a deadly glare towards the other Etherious.

E.N.D. then immediately flew towards Acnologia, where the King of Dragons and King of Demons clashed fists; a powerful vibration that shook and cracked the ground beneath them resulting from their evenly matched punches.

Lucy watched the battle unfolding before her, eyes wide at the immense power that both E.N.D. and Acnologia displayed just by clashing their fists against each other. The Celestial Spirit mage heard her name being called by three different voices in unison, her chocolate brown eyes turning to see Gray, Erza and Loke approaching her, concern on their faces considering that she agreed to become the 'queen' of the most powerful of all of Zeref's demons.

Before Lucy could even mutter a single word or letter towards her friends, thorns shot out of the ground in-front of her and towards her friends. Gray and Erza were able to dodge the thorns with relative ease, concerning their injuries, but Loke had shown trouble and just barely escape getting impaled by one of the thorns.

Lucy gasped in shock, reaching out her hand to check if her friends were okay, but was stopped when multiple thorns came out of the ground and surrounded her in a dome-shaped cage.

It wasn't hard for Lucy to guess who caused the thorns to appear, especially as Mard Geer came into view, a grimace on his face.

"As much as it displeases Mard Geer to protect you, he will comply to E.N.D.'s orders." the purple-haired demon said, his grimace unwavering as he turned around, curse energy building around him. "And _you_ , humans, only won against Mard Geer because he wasn't using his true power. Now that Lord E.N.D. has reawakened, it is time for Mard Geer to show you humans what his true power looks like."

Mard Geer's form then changed, the actual transformation being nigh impossible as he was covered by an aura-like glow. It was after Mard Geer's transformation that Lucy could actually notice his change in appearance.

Mard Geer's body had became more muscular, his skin had darkened and gained the ragged pattern of his cloak. Mard Geer had grown long, dark horns on his forehead and his teeth became jagged, albeit his ponytail retained on his head. Mard Geer's fingers were replaced with claws and his ears became elongated and elf-like while large, bat-like wings that were both light and dark in colour occupied his back. Mard Geer's mouth opened as he spoke in a voice that was much deeper than the voice he had in his human form.

"Die at the true form and power of Mard Geer, insects!"

* * *

E.N.D. rocketed towards Acnologia, the demon and dragon king respectively clashing their fists; a powerful vibration that shook and cracked the ground beneath them resulting from their evenly matched punches.

Acnologia and E.N.D. both had mad faces; Acnologia's was a wide grin with eyes that shown his desire for a worthy foe. E.N.D.'s face, however, was one of pure, bloodthirsty, demonic rage with the red eyes of an angry fire demon that would (literally) burn the soul of any normal human until nothing remained. But Acnologia wasn't any normal human; he was a Dragon Slayer of indisputable power, it would take much more than a glare of absolute hatred to burn his soul.

Acnologia's feet were fixed onto the ground beneath him, even as it crumbled into pebbles. E.N.D.'s body was in mid-air, the Etherious twisting his body to kick Acnologia in the stomach, which (believe it or not) was harder than steel.

Blood escaped from Acnologia's mouth as E.N.D.'s foot came in contact with his stomach. Whenever it was a reflex to the pain or a result of the force of E.N.D.'s kick, Acnologia's back had bended, allowing E.N.D. to swiftly punch him in the back of the head.

Of course these attacks were strong, even without the usage of Magic or Curses.

However, Acnologia was a being who single-handedly killed hundreds, if not thousands, of dragons: the strongest beings to ever live on the planet. Hell, Acnologia's power and strength was so immense that even the strongest of mages who reside in Earth Land were like bugs to him.

Despite the force pushing his head down, Acnologia managed to push his head back up, showing E.N.D. the same wide grin from when he and E.N.D. started their battle. Acnologia grabbed E.N.D. by one of his ankles, smashing him against the ground (or at least the broken remains of it) before throwing the fire demon high into the air.

In an instant, Acnologia was above the Etherious who was high in the air and kicked E.N.D. in the stomach (not unlike how the Etherious was to the Dragon Slayer earlier), sending E.N.D. plummeting down to the ground.

E.N.D. groaned in pain, his stomach and back aching from Acnologia's attack. Before E.N.D. could get back onto his own two feet, the dammed dark blue-haired Dragon Slayer then smashed his foot onto E.N.D.'s stomach again, black blood that definitely didn't belong to a human escaping from his mouth.

"I must say, you actually do come off as a match for me, demon of Zeref." Acnologia said, pushing his foot even further down E.N.D.'s stomach, a dark chuckle escaping from him as he spoke. "This is the greatest battle I've had in a _long_ time."

"Accolades mean nothing when they come from scum like you." E.N.D. said, his grimace of hatred unfading. A fire surrounded E.N.D.'s right hand before shooting out like a chain and surrounding Acnologia's neck with a collar made of fire, even though it produced no heat. The fire demon flicked the 'chain', sending Acnologia flying into a wall, a massive cloud of dust resulting from being thrown into the wall.

E.N.D. got off the ground, standing perfectly fine like Acnologia's assault on his abdomen was like being punched by a little kid. "This is not your battle, this is your demise."

"My demise, eh?" Acnologia asked, walking out of the dissipating cloud of dust, taking off his black cloak which started to drift along the air. "Well you're going to have to try harder. Although, I think it's time that _I_ started to kick it up a notch."

Acnologia started to make a deep inhale of air, sucking in all the nearby Ethernano, E.N.D. had an idea of what attack Acnologia was going to do next.

"Chaos Dragon's Roar!" Acnologia yelled, a bright blue blast of pure magical energy shooting out of his mouth as he casted the spell. E.N.D. looked at the oncoming blast of pure magic before making a 'tsk' sound, the bright blue blast seemingly engulfing him. After Acnologia stopped casting his Dragon Roar spell, the Dragon Slayer saw that his spell left a long, thin crater, much like the one E.N.D. created earlier ago.

Speaking of which, the aforementioned Etherious was nowhere in sight. Assuming that E.N.D. was annihilated by his spell, Acnologia let out a rather disappointed sigh.

"I guess the demon wasn't as strong as I expected." Acnologia grumbled, crossing his arms over his bare chest. "How pathetic."

"You should look at a mirror while saying that." E.N.D. said behind Acnologia, much to the Dragon Slayer's shock. E.N.D. then immediately kicked Acnologia in the back before the Dragon Slayer could react, the demon's foot surrounded by his own fires to increase the power and force of his kick.

Acnologia was sent a distance away from the Etherious by the aforementioned Etherious' kick, landing on his front before getting back up onto his feet turning towards E.N.D. with a look of genuine excitement back on his face.

"That was a sneaky trick you pulled off there, E.N.D." Acnologia said, pure magic surrounding his clenched fist. The mighty Dragon Slayer then dashed towards E.N.D. at immense speeds, his arm raised behind him as he prepared to punch E.N.D.

E.N.D. managed to stop Acnologia's oncoming fist, catching it in his claw like how the regular Natsu caught Sting's punch during the Grand Magic Games. Although much like how E.N.D. was far stronger than the regular Natsu, Acnologia was far stronger than Sting. As such, E.N.D. did have some difficulty blocking the punch, as well as was pushed back by a few feet from the punch.

Nevertheless, E.N.D.'s claw held a strong grip on Acnologia's fist, stopping the Dragon Slayer from hitting him. E.N.D.'s left foot lit on fire, the demon trying to kick Acnologia.

Well tried, Acnologia managed to notice E.N.D.'s foot was on fire and escaped from the Etherious' grip before E.N.D. could hit him. E.N.D. was somewhat impressed that Acnologia predicted his attack just by a mere glance, but the demon king criticised himself for feeling impressed by the dragon king; it was just wrong to feel impressed by mere parasites.

" **Burst.** " E.N.D. said, snapping his claws (fingers?) as he casted a spell from his Flame Curse. Small specks of fire surrounded Acnologia, much to the Dragon Slayer's confusion. Before Acnologia could figure out what the specks of fire were, or what they were meant to do, the aforementioned specks of fire exploded, the resulting explosions being big enough and strong enough to send the Dragon Slayer into the air.

It seemed as though Acnologia was unconscious, as his face was like that of someone who passed out. But it might as well as been a façade, as Acnologia's eyes instantly opened, his face returning to a mad grin.

"Stellar Orbs." Acnologia said, announcing the activation of a spell. Ten small orbs of a golden colour that looked like miniature stars surrounded Acnologia, whirling around the half naked man before shooting out towards E.N.D.

E.N.D. flew up into the air via his wings, escaping from the oncoming spell. Or so he thought. When E.N.D. looked down to where the orbs were, he was admittedly surprised to see that the orbs changed trajectory so that they were going upwards... towards him!

"A homing spell?" E.N.D. muttered in confusion, trying to fly away from the orbs. But it was for naught, as the orbs managed to catch up with E.N.D., all ten managing to home in on him and explode on contact, the heat of the explosions being so immense that they could burn the skin of even a fire demon of E.N.D.'s calibre.

E.N.D. plummeted onto the ground with a loud thud, a small crater resulting from the impact he made against the ground. E.N.D. let out a groan of pain due to both his burns and the impact he made against the ground.

Luckily for E.N.D., the fire demon had regeneration abilities that far surpassed even the likes of Tempester. Looking at his arm, E.N.D. smirked as the burnt skin on his arm was turning back to normal, he could even feel his bones regenerating back to normal from the damage they received when he plummeted against the ground.

E.N.D. got back onto his feet and walked out of the crater, the injuries that he received from Acnologia's spell having been healed in only a matter of seconds.

"Your regenerative abilities are astounding." Acnologia praised E.N.D., his grin unaltered. "Most beings can't even stay in one piece after being hit by that spell, but you not only survived but also healed from it like nothing."

"I already told you: accolades mean nothing when they come from scum." E.N.D. replied, his voice was rather matter-of-fact despite his scowl.

Despite E.N.D.'s comment, Acnologia's grin didn't falter. And then, in an odd form of synchronization, E.N.D. and Acnologia dashed towards each other at incredible speeds. Acnologia and E.N.D.'s fists moved so fast that to the naked eye it seemed as though they both gained multiple arms, their fists either aiming for their foe's face (or other body parts) only to be blocked by the other's fist, or vice versa as in they were blocking the other's fists.

"I must admit that it is surprising that you and I are evenly matched." Acnologia said, gaining the upper hand by kneeing E.N.D. in the stomach, black blood escaping from the demon's mouth as a result, much like when Acnologia crushed his abdomen earlier. "There are very few forms of magic in existence that can compare to my own."

The grinning Dragon Slayer was about to deliver a punch to E.N.D.'s face, but the Etherious managed to uppercut him underneath the chin, the power of said uppercut was amplified by E.N.D. using his Flame Curse to set his fist on fire. Swiftly, E.N.D. used his primary curse to set his foot on fire as he kicked Acnologia in the stomach.

"And what form of magic would that be?" E.N.D. asked, his voice remaining matter-of-fact. The demon king's hand lit on fire before he shot a massive fireball towards Acnologia, the fireball wasn't as big as the one that he used against Gray, Erza and Jellal, but it was still big enough to engulf Acnologia's head.

Magic with the appearance of blue fire surrounded Acnologia's right hand as he swatted away the fireball, a rather gruff chuckle rumbled from his throat at the effortless action. "Chaos Dragon Slayer Magic; one of the strongest forms of magic in Creation."

Acnologia was suddenly in-front of E.N.D., the centuries old Dragon Slayer punching the demon in the gut with immense strength that would cause most beings to break into at least two pieces. But E.N.D. was stronger than most beings so he was able to stay intact, sure it hurt like he was being broken in half but managed to remain intact nevertheless.

E.N.D. flew into a pile of rubble, getting back up onto his feet and wiping off any of his blood that was left on his face with his claw almost instantly.

"As you may already know, many different forms of magic are made out of different types of elements," Acnologia explained, ducking as E.N.D. attempted to punch him in the face with a burning fist. E.N.D. was in mid-air, as he jumped towards Acnologia when he attempted to punch the Dragon Slayer. Acnologia then tried to punch E.N.D. again, but the fire demon was able to twist his body to not only dodge the punch but was able grab Acnologia's hair and throw him into one of the few walls that remained on their little battlefield.

Despite this, Acnologia resumed explaining like nothing happened as he got back up. "But all forms of magic share a principle element: Chaos. No matter what elements any form of magic is made out of, it is never truly magic until it is mixed with the chaotic energies that were originally used to create existence itself."

E.N.D. snapped his claws as he once again casted his 'Burst' spell, small specks of fire surrounded Acnologia like before. However, this time Acnologia was aware of what the specks were meant to do and jumped away before the specks could explode.

"And as a Dragon Slayer I possess the ability to eat my element, that of which is the same chaos energies used to create all forms of magic, so I can eat magic itself, hence I am invincible! Only certain forms of magic or magic owned by mages that are a certain calibre above my own cannot be eaten by me." Acnologia finished, a haughty expression on his face as he explained the 'invincibility' of his magic.

E.N.D. suddenly appeared in front of Acnologia, punching the Dragon Slayer in the neck with enough strength to kill a dragon. Of course, it would take something far stronger than that to kill someone who killed countless dragons on his own. Acnologia counterattacked by kicking E.N.D. in the stomach.

The fire demon was sent flying a few feet back but managed to land on his feet effortlessly, a small smirk appearing on his face for a split second as he saw the blue-haired bastard hiss while rubbing the spot on his neck where he punched. E.N.D.'s Flame Curse gave him control of fires stronger than anything any human could handle.

"Although I must know," Acnologia said, no longer rubbing his neck as his face was no longer a grin for the first time since his and E.N.D.'s battle started. "My magic is not only invincible, but I have slain innumerable dragons and lived for centuries, letting my power grow stronger as the days past. So I must know, how are you as strong as I am?"

"So you inquire to know how I am as strong as I am." E.N.D. spoke, more of a sentence than a question, his eyes closed. The demon king then let out a rather dark laugh before opening mad eyes towards Acnologia. "Very well then!"

E.N.D.'s fists then lit on fire as he dashed towards Acnologia with faster speeds then he ever showcased before, hitting the aforementioned Dragon Slayer in the gut; sending him flying. Before Acnologia was launched into a wall or pile of debris, E.N.D. was suddenly beneath the mid-air Dragon Slayer with his feet lit on fire like his fists, kicking Acnologia in the back, sending him into the air.

As Acnologia was high in the air, E.N.D. grabbed him by his long hair. "I'll assume that you already know of my creation."

"Dragon Slayer hearing." Acnologia replied pridefully, tapping his ears. "I already know that Zeref 'created' you by resurrecting you, that you were really another victim of those vile beasts."

"So it's a 'Yes' then." E.N.D. said before throwing Acnologia into the ground, crumbling it as the Dragon Slayer made contact. E.N.D. slammed his feet down onto Acnologia's back, glaring at him disdainfully. "As you already know, my creation was more of a resurrection. As his original intention from the start was to bring me back to life, Zeref had encased my corpse in a pod."

Acnologia managed to elbow E.N.D. in the chest, getting the fire demon off of him. Acnologia then attempted the punch E.N.D. in the face, but the Etherious dodged, taking to the skies.

"It was an early magic pod that Zeref had managed to find to keep my body from decomposing, since my body was still intact, unlike mother and fathers." E.N.D. continued, shooting fire out of one of his hands and towards Acnologia. "The pod was able to keep my body from decomposing due to absorbing Ethernano as fuel, however what Zeref was unaware of was that my body ended up absorbing the same Ethernano."

"As the years passed on and Zeref grew from being a little boy to a teenager, I was exposed to many different kinds of magic as he endlessly tried to revive me. Those different kinds of magic were absorbed into me alongside the countless amounts of Ethernano throughout those years, unintentionally turning my small body into a magic catalyst of sorts."

Acnologia breathed in a tremendous amount of air before unleashing another 'Chaos Dragon's Roar' on E.N.D., the demon king countering the attack with a 'Fire Devil's Rage', an explosion coming from where the two spells clashed.

"Steller Orbs." Acnologia said, casting the homing spell again. Ten golden orbs circled around Acnologia before shooting towards E.N.D., some of them even moving around the demon to stop him from escaping. E.N.D. was, however, more aware of the capabilities of the spell. E.N.D. then turned into pure fire and escaped by moving through one of the small gaps between the orbs at the last second.

Since E.N.D. escaped as they were very close to each other, the orbs collided and exploded on contact, the pure fire that was E.N.D. turning back into the fire demon as the orbs exploded.

"Eventually Zeref came back with the Curse of Contradiction, in which where he used the same Black Art, Living Magic, that he used to create the rest of the Etherious to resurrect me." E.N.D. continued, stopping Acnologia from punching him by catching his wrist before punching him in the gut. "It was shortly after that Zeref realised that the massive amounts of Ethernano that I absorbed, alongside my own innate magic powers, mixed with the Black Arts of Ankhseram had turned me into a being of seemingly endlessly growing power."

E.N.D. then threw Acnologia into the nearly destroyed remain of a wall. The Dragon Slayer crashed against the wall, although he rocketed towards E.N.D. and punched the Etherious in the face.

E.N.D. was sent flying backwards a few feet by the punch, landing hard on his buttocks. E.N.D. wiped away the blood on the corner of his mouth, noticing that Acnologia was dashing towards him; the aforementioned Dragon Slayer's grin having dwindled.

E.N.D. shot out his right claw towards Acnologia, a strong fire shooting out of his claw towards and stopping The Black Dragon.

"And then there is the creation of Curses, but you've already heard of that." E.N.D. said, putting his left claw up and pointing it towards Acnologia, fire and curse power building up in the claw as he activated another spell of his Flame Curse. " **Smoulder** **.** "

Flames much like those from Hell shot out of E.N.D.'s claw, towards Acnologia. Acnologia merely smirked, believing that he could eat the spell. The Chaos Dragon Slayer inhaled the attack like how Natsu or Wendy would eat their element, the flames being fully sucked into his body. After eating the spell, Acnologia looked towards E.N.D. and was surprised to see that the demon was smirking, but before he could question it he felt an intense, burning pain throughout the inside of his body.

"What... is going... on?!" Acnologia said, falling down on his knees and sweating from the painful heat inside his body. Acnologia's head then went up shakily towards E.N.D., the Dragon Slayer's expression was of pure anger. "W... what did you do...? I... I'm supposed... to be able to... eat all... magic...! H-How is... this hurting... me?"

E.N.D. chuckled sadistically, enjoying that that bastard who would make his demon queen cry and then try to kill her was suffering, just as he absolutely deserved (in E.N.D.'s opinion).

"That is merely one of the many things that make Curses superior to Magic." E.N.D. said, his grin widening at the pained face of Acnologia. "You see, Magic-Negating items and magic's of the same capability only really work by negating the chaos energies in the magic. In order for Curses to be resistant to all forms of Magic Negation, I had to make them work without the chaos energies of Magic."

"It wasn't easy, removing the chaos energy and replacing it with most of the elements that made up the Black Arts, but it worked in the end." E.N.D. finished. Acnologia glared at the Etherious, sweat coating his entire body as unbearable pain and heat burned inside him from E.N.D.'s curse.

Acnologia groaned in pain, the intense burning that was throughout the entire inside of his body was so agonizing that it took all of his willpower for the groan to not turn into an outright scream or cry of pain. "What the hell is this fire?! Why is it still burning?!"

E.N.D. chuckled darkly again, happier that his scumbag who dared to make his demon queen cry was suffering.

"That is Smoulder: a spell of the Flame Curse; my strongest and most favoured Curse." E.N.D. said, looking down at the so-called 'Dragon King'. A pathetic king for a nigh extinct species of lizards, how fitting. "Unlike most spells of my Flame Curse, Smoulder isn't designed to cause as much destruction and burning as possible. Instead it is designed to torture the victim by burning them with painful fires as it slowly burns them until nothing but ash remains."

Acnologia growled at E.N.D.; The Dragon King wanted a good fight, not a damn demon torturing him! Acnologia's hand went to his chest, near the neck, on the verge of clawing the curse out of him. A thought occurred to Acnologia, if he wished to expel this Curse then he would have to do the opposite of how he absorbed it.

E.N.D.'s eyebrow raised when Acnologia started coughing weirdly and rapidly. Was he getting a sickness in the middle of a battle? E.N.D. let out a simple 'tsk' at the notion, he knew that Acnologia was a pathetic pile of shit but not on this level.

A small flame of fire came out of Acnologia's mouth, turning into nothing but sparks as soon as it made contact with the stone ground. E.N.D. became confused when more flames escaped Acnologia's mouth to turn into nothing as soon as they left.

" _Wait, he is...!_ " E.N.D. thought, turning into fire as Acnologia vomited out the fire used for the smoulder spell. The fire that E.N.D. turned into went behind the Dragon Slayer as every last piece of his spell had exited the aforementioned Dragon Slayer. " _So he figured out a way to get rid of Smoulder... Whatever, it's not like the spell was meant to be eaten anyways._ "

Acnologia took deep breathes as the dreaded Curse left his body, his inside no longer being burned alive. Acnologia smirked, feeling a sense of pride as he overcame one of the Curses of E.N.D., who proved himself to be a formidable opponent (for the first time in forever). "Heh, that the best you got, demon of Zeref?"

"Ha, don't boast you're strength before knowing your enemy's true power!" E.N.D. said. "That is barely the strongest spell that my Flame Curse possesses. For instance," E.N.D. raised his hand, snapping his claws like when he casted his 'Burst' spell. " **Gateway.** "

A portal of fire appeared under Acnologia, chains made of the same material as the portal came out of said portal, one connected to Acnologia's neck via a collar made of fire (although it was surprisingly lacking in heat) while four others connected to his wrists and ankles via cuffs made of fire (which were also rather lacking in heat).

Acnologia grunted as he tried fight against the chains as they lowered him into the portal, but it all seemed futile, especially as other chains of fire wrapped around his body.

"What is this?!" Acnologia growled, staring angrily at the demon that casted the spell. "Where the hell are these chains taking me?!"

"This is Gateway: another spell that belongs to my Flame Curse." E.N.D. explained, grinning darkly towards the Dragon Slayer as he was being dragged into the portal of fire. "It is a spell that drags its victims down into Hell."

Acnologia's body had been dragged into the fire portal, only his head remained outside of the aforementioned fire portal, growling and glaring at E.N.D. "Do you really think that Hell can hold me?! All that you are doing is prolonging your defeat!"

E.N.D. merely waved his claw left to right in a 'Goodbye' fashion while wearing a huge, teeth-showing grin on his face. The fire portal disappeared after Acnologia was completely sucked into it, leaving nothing but scratch-like burn marks where it once was. E.N.D. went up to the burn marks, tapping his foot against the ground to make sure that Acnologia was in Hell for good.

"Ha, so Acnologia was taken into Hell!" E.N.D. chortled, still tapping his foot against the burn marks on the ground. "Perfect, that damn oversized lizard deserved it for his crimes against my demon queen."

E.N.D. immediately started to feel more calm at the thought of his demon queen, his lips feeling warm from the mere thought of when he finally kissed his beloved demon queen. Lucy Heartfilia. Even just her name was enjoyable, a simple name that rolls off the tongue and is delightful to the ears. Honestly, the only thing about her that he hated that she was a human.

Humans...! E.N.D. growled as a thought concerning both his demon queen and humans entered his mind; there were many humans in the world that did horrible things to her; hurt her, kidnap her, torture her, attempt to kill her, et cetera. E.N.D. growled again, this time it was more deep and demonic than earlier, so many humans did those things to her for no real reason. Hell, some of those humans were even in the same guild as her!

Even those that were his own minions had done these to her. E.N.D. looked at a big rock, most likely a piece of the ground that was broken off in his battle with Acnologia, immediately sending a powerful blast of fire at it, obliterating it.

E.N.D. destroyed the rock hoping that it would release some of his anger, it worked at least a little bit.

" _Whatever, those other demons of Tartaros will be punished after I revive them._ " E.N.D. thought, his scowl turning into a maniacal grin. " _Yes, many will be punished for what they did to my demon queen._ "

Before E.N.D. could further entertain the thought of punishing those who wronged the love of his immortal life, the ground began to shake and vibrate. A powerful earthquake was erupting beneath E.N.D., one so strong that it could probably be felt all over Fiore. Before E.N.D. could think of a reasoning behind the earthquake, a giant creature made a lunge out from underneath the ground, its head hitting the Etherious as it flew into the air.

E.N.D. was pushed against the giant creature's head as it flew high into the sky, the aforementioned creature tossing E.N.D. off of it with a movement of its neck. As E.N.D. was tossed off the creature's head, it then swung a claw at him, ripping off the left side of his upper body. As E.N.D. screamed in pain, the giant creature then swung its tail against (what remained of) his back, making the Etherious fall to the ground at great speeds.

"Dammit!" E.N.D. sweared, looking angrily up at the air where the pest of a black dragon was flying.

"I told you that Hell can't hold me!" Acnologia roared, a small grin appearing on his scaly face for a few seconds as he saw that his attack had wounded E.N.D. "It would take much more than that to defeat me."

E.N.D. only partially listened to Acnologia, instead focusing more on the part of his body that had been teared by the Chaos Dragon Slayer. E.N.D. focused his power on the wound; it stopped bleeding shortly thereafter. The boundaries between E.N.D.'s wound and the rest of his body were set aflame, the fire then began to cover the entire wound until the flesh and blood and bone that would usually stay hidden underneath skin was then hidden underneath the fire.

The fire seemed to stretch out, one thick line of fire stretching out further than the rest of the others. The flames grew and stretched into a rather specific shape, like they were recreating the pieces of E.N.D.'s body that was ripped off. The flames surrounding E.N.D.'s left upper body then began to disperse, revealing that they in fact were recreating E.N.D.'s left torso. The flames dispersed until only E.N.D.'s arm remained covered in flames, they disappeared to reveal first his deltoid, before showing his triceps, and then his bicep, before uncovering the rest of his arm and hand.

E.N.D. flexed his arm and claws, popping and snapping sounds emitting from the appendages. E.N.D. made a quick hum as he was certain that he had complete control of his newly grown(?) body part. E.N.D. then moved his eyes to the piece of his upper body that was ripped off; the arm attached to the hunk of flesh was already halfway through burning into nothing.

During his earlier years as a fire demon, E.N.D. had came to realise that while his regenerative abilities were incredibly strong, he couldn't naturally regrow any limbs or other body parts that were completely ripped off.

Instead fire would surround the wound and recreate the lost body part, while the part of his body that was ripped off would burn until nothing remained.

E.N.D. moved his eyes from the burning appendage to Acnologia, the black dragon was scowling towards the fire demon. E.N.D. didn't know if Acnologia was scowling towards him because he mostly ignored the dragon, or if he regrew the piece of his body that the dragon ripped off, or if it was a mix of both; although frankly E.N.D. didn't really care.

"Heaven's Judgement!" Acnologia roared, one of the big, black arms of his dragon form raising high in the air, a bright blue light emitting from the heavens, further than even the eyes of a dragon or demon could ever see. Acnologia swung his arm down, the bright blue light descending down as a humongous blue beam of raw insurmountable magic power, aimed right at E.N.D.

The spell made contact with the ground, shaking its very foundations. Acnologia smirked as he was sure that E.N.D. was hit with the spell.

"There's no way that even he would survive that attack!" Acnologia said, looking down at the giant cloud of dust that was dissipating into nothingness. "Heaven's Judgement is a spell that obliterates all in its range, even if said range is rather small."

"Then your definition of 'obliterate' must differ from my own!" a familiar demonic voice shouted as a familiar figure flew out of the dust cloud, straight towards Acnologia. The Chaos Dragon growled deeply as he recognised the figure as E.N.D., pulling his right arm back as he prepared to punch the damn spawn/sibling of that Black Arts weakling. " **Oni: Arm.** "

Fire surrounded E.N.D.'s own right arm as he casted the spell, the flames created an arm and fist that was as big as Acnologia's (dragon form), although the arm both looked exactly like E.N.D.'s as well as moved in perfect synchronization as his own.

Acnologia and E.N.D. clashed fists, much like when their battle had begun, albeit this time Acnologia was in his dragon form and was taking the battle much more seriously.

E.N.D.'s 'Oni: Arm' spell had been extinguished, although Acnologia's arm had lost the momentum and power from earlier as the two attacks perfectly countered each other. Acnologia decided to instead try and claw E.N.D., like he did earlier, because even if the demon could heal from it he would still be in great pain and would eventually be unable to heal.

E.N.D. flew away from the dragon's swiping claws, escaping the attack. Growling in anger, Acnologia breathed in vast amounts of air. E.N.D. quickly realised what Acnologia was going to do, so the Etherious began to breathe in vast amounts of air himself, preparing a spell to counter Acnologia's own.

"Chaos Dragon's Roar!"

"Fire Devil's Rage!"

The blast of pure magic and blast of hellfire made a powerful impact against each other, an explosion resulting from their collision. Acnologia took the explosion as a chance to strike E.N.D., the dragon flying towards him at high speeds.

Acnologia swiftly slashed at E.N.D.'s abs with his sharp claws, the skin and flesh of the Etherious' abdomen splitting apart where the claws had made contact. Acnologia then tried to slash E.N.D. with his left claw, but the demon casted his 'Oni: Arm' spell to stop the attack with his right arm/claw while his left arm covered the temporary wound.

Luckily for E.N.D., his regenerative abilities were taking effect; the slashes on his stomach disappearing until not even a scar or scratch remained.

Grunting as the demon was stopping his attack, Acnologia tried to attack E.N.D. with his right claw, but the demon had swiftly turned into nothing more than pure fire and escaped by going through the space between the claws.

E.N.D. had went a sizeable distance away from Acnologia, behind the black dragon. A fireball appeared in E.N.D.'s hand, growing in size until it was just as big (if not bigger) as the one he used against his former comrades, and shot it at Acnologia's back. The Dragon Slayer grunted in pain as E.N.D. got behind him and attacked him from behind.

Acnologia turned around, scowling at the demon who was now a distance from him. E.N.D. tut-tutted, this nuisance that made his precious demon queen cry was taking too damn long die.

"You're quite annoying for a pest, even if you are one of the few worthy opponents that I've faced. This spell will make you regret lasting this long in your execution." as E.N.D. said this, he had his right arm and claw outstretched, a fireball in the claw. At first one would presume this as another regular fireball, but that wasn't really the case. " **Onibi.** "

The fireball in E.N.D.'s talon flickered into a blue-white colour before reproducing more fireballs that floated around the demon king until a total of twenty-nine (thirty if you include the original one) fireballs floated around him.

Acnologia stared at E.N.D. wide-eyed, confused as the demon that he now considered as his enemy was surrounded by orbs of fire. The corners of E.N.D.'s lips were turned upwards for a second or two in a smirk at the look of Acnolohia's bewildered expression, before turning back to their usual frown as he outstretched his claw towards the dragon and ordered over his Onibi. "Feast."

The orbs of fire that surrounded E.N.D. then suddenly started to fly towards Acnologia at surprisingly high speeds. Acnologia tried to attack the orbs of fire by slashing them with his claws, however the aforementioned orbs were quick and were able to dodge the Dragon Slayer's claws.

The thirty orbs of fire then seemingly stuck onto Acnologia; at first they didn't seem dangerous, as they produced very little heat. However, Acnologia was starting to feel tired, like the essence of his life itself was being drained out of him.

The Chaos Dragon Slayer was feeling particularly tired and drained in the areas where...

Acnologia's eyes widened as he realised that the orbs of fire were what was draining him of his energy, his life force itself. Acnologia shook his dragon body, trying to get the damn orbs off of him, but to no avail. Acnologia growled, 'flames' of pure blue magical energy emitting from his claws before surrounding his body, destroying the blue-white orbs that had stuck to his body like leeches.

Acnologia took deep breaths as the last of those blasted fire orbs were destroyed by his magic, glaring at the demon who sent them on him. "That was a sneaky trick you pulled, E.N.D.!"

"'Twas not a trick," E.N.D. retorted rather nonchalantly, more focused on examining his claws then looking at Acnologia, much the Dragon Slayer's ire. "Just simply a curse; that is what Onibi do to living beings."

Acnologia flew towards E.N.D. faster than the naked eye could perceive, punching the demon with a fist that was as big as the Etherious' body; sending the demon flying.

"Steller Orbs!" Acnologia roared, casting the spell again, although this time it was twenty of them as well as they were twice as big as when he casted them in his human form. E.N.D. turned into fire again, barely escaping the orbs as some were able to chase after him even as he turned into fire. Despite E.N.D.'s attempts, the orbs managed to hit him, a total of six managing to hurt him.

Before Acnologia could laugh in glee or cast another spell, a gigantic thorny vine shot out of the ground and wrapped itself around Acnologia's left wrist. Acnologia's eyebrow (if he had any in his dragon form) raised, he doesn't see the demon Mard Geer Tartaros anywhere around where he was, nor does he remember the demon being capable of creating a thorny vine that was big enough to wrap around a dragon's wrist.

Acnologia's eyes widened in realisation as he remembered one of the things E.N.D. did before they fought. Acnologia looked towards where E.N.D. was before the orbs had hit the demon.

E.N.D. was flying in the air, his arm up in the air with his index and middle claw pointing out while his other claws were pressed into his palm. "The Flame Curse and Thorn Curse are only two of my multiple Curses."

Before Acnologia could attack or say something to E.N.D., the thorny vine wrapped around Acnologia's wrist began to pull down back into the ground with enough strength to pull the black dragon himself. Acnologia grunted as he pulled against the vine, trying to stop it from pulling him into the ground. Unbeknownst to Acnologia, E.N.D. was preparing an attack against him.

E.N.D. outstretched a claw, a fireball forming in his hand as it went upward. The fireball changed shape, turning into a sword made of fire; the blade of the fire sword began to grow and lengthen until it was ten times the size of E.N.D.

Despite the blade being bigger than himself, E.N.D. was able to hold the fire sword that he created with ease. With Acnologia trying to pull against the thorny vine wrapped around his wrist, the black dragon's arm was outstretched; a huge, open target for E.N.D. to slice.

Acnologia didn't realise what happened; one moment he was retaliating against a vine that was trying to pull him into the ground, and in the next he felt a throbbing pain that stung as all hell. He then noticed that he couldn't feel his arm at all. Acnologia looked at his left side, only to see his left arm, separated from his body, falling to the ground as blood came out of the appendage.

Almost his entire left arm was cut clean off by E.N.D., that damn demon had cut off his arm. Growling in pure rage, Acnologia looked around to find E.N.D. only to not see the demon king anywhere.

Acnologia then sniffed at the air, trying to detect E.N.D. via his scent. The Chaos Dragon Slayer managed to pick up E.N.D.'s scent... from right behind him!

" **Oni: Leg.** " E.N.D. said, a fire surrounding his right leg as he casted the spell. The fire grew into a huge leg, as big as the fire arm that E.N.D. created earlier ago. With swift speed and powerful strength, E.N.D. kicked Acnologia in the back, sending the dragon plummeting into the ground.

A loud and powerful quake happened as Acnologia slammed against the hard, rocky ground. Acnologia glared at the fire demon that was afloat in the air, a deep growl rumbling from his throat as he stared at said fire demon. "I will destroy you E.N.D.! Nothing of you will remain after I'm done with you!"

"This isn't the end of me, this is the end of you." E.N.D. said as powerful flames started to surround his entire body, a loud scream coming out of his throat as he prepared one of the strongest spell of his Flame Curse; the fire surrounding E.N.D. becoming bigger and wilder. " **Inferno!** "

An tremendously huge and powerful fire came out of E.N.D.'s mouth as he casted the spell, completely engulfing Acnologia. E.N.D. could hear screams of absolute pain coming from Acnologia for a few a seconds, and then... silence. E.N.D. waved his arm and the fire stared to die down until there was no longer any fire, just a black section of the ground.

E.N.D. descended onto the ground, looking at the burnt and seemingly dead Acnologia; while the dragon was mostly black, there were still blue markings and a part of his body that was grey. But now, if one were to look overhead then Acnologia would be perfectly camouflaged with the burnt ground no matter what position he was in.

E.N.D. spared a quick glance at the cut off arm that was also burnt and nearby. "An arm for an arm." E.N.D. said, remembering what Acnologia did to him earlier ago.

E.N.D. looked back at Acnologia, kicking the dragon in the stomach (even though Acnologia's stomach was about as big a his body) multiple times. E.N.D. waited for Acnologia to respond in some shape or form, but nothing happened. E.N.D. smiled; good, Acnologia is finally dead.

E.N.D. then groaned in pain, that damn dragon was a pain in the ass to kill. Despite his pain, E.N.D. smiled as one of the scumbags that hurt his demon queen had finally suffered the judgement that they deserved. And now that he was dead, E.N.D. could finally return to his demon queen for real.

E.N.D. couldn't deny that there was a warmth on both of his cheeks as well as in his chest at the thought of being back with his demon queen, nor could he deny the purr that slipped his lips. E.N.D.'s feet left the ground as his wings started to flap, the demon king flying back to the blonde-haired beauty of a Celestial Spirit mage that had smitten him.

Unbeknownst to the demon as he flew away, an extremely powerful dark mage watched the demon, a smile on his face as a tear of joy or two slipped down his cheek for two reasons.

One was that his greatest creation had reawakened, the other was that the demise that he desired for multiple centuries would come soon.

* * *

Mard Geer unleashed multiple thorns from out of the ground towards the mages and Celestial Spirit with the intention of the thorns piercing them, however the Requip mage and Heavenly Body mage managed to dodge the thorns, as did the Celestial Spirit, while the son of Silver the traitor used his Ice Devil Slayer magic to freeze the thorns before they could even scrape him.

Mard Geer growled in anger as those insects survived his attack. The humans had been through hell by defeating Mard Geer, and had then been put through even more hell by Lord E.N.D., and the Celestial Spirit is staying outside of his home dimension by using what little remained of his magic.

And yet they weren't dying instantaneously from Mard Geer's true power!

Although, to Mard Geer's shame, the thorns sent towards the enemies of Mard Geer were sluggish in comparison to how fast Mard Geer's thorns usually where. The humans had given Mard Geer quite the beating when they defeated him (oh how it hurt Mard Geer to even think that), and then Lord E.N.D. had set Mard Geer on fire and then impale him with thorns because Mard Geer had unleashed the ire of his lord.

"Ice-Make: Fist!" Gray yelled, creating and shooting a giant (or at least relatively big) fist made of ice towards Mard Geer. The Definitive Demon used his wings to fly up in the air, dodging the spell. Mard Geer noticed that Gray was panting, as he had little to no magical energy left when he casted the spell. The demon swooped down towards Gray, grabbing the Ice-Make mage by the head. Mard Geer then bashed Gray's head against the ground, dragging his head against the ground at high speeds before throwing the human into a wall.

Mard Geer then heard a yell from behind as he threw the Devil Slayer into a wall. Turning around, Mard Geer saw the lion Celestial Spirit rushing towards him (at least as best as one can if they were in his condition), attempting to punch Mard Geer with a Regulus empowered fist.

Mard Geer huffed, making a simple hand gesture that caused thorns to come out of the ground and impale the Celestial Spirit in multiple parts of what remained of his, the same Celestial Spirit screaming in pain as the thorns shot through him.

"You spirits are as weak as the humans who command over you, it boggles Mard Geer that believe you can win, especially now that Lord E.N.D. has awakened." Mard Geer said, placing an outstretched claw before Loke; a familiar rose-shaped compound was glowing in the claw. "Rose Explosion."

The rose-shaped compound exploded, its white light engulfing Mard Geer and Loke completely. Erza and Jellal squinted as the light from the explosion hurt their eyes, while Gray got out of the rubble of the wall he was thrown into. The light from the Rose Explosion disappeared, revealing Mard Geer and his thorns... but no Loke. All that there was in Loke's place were little specks of stardust.

"Loke!" Erza and Gray shouted in surprise and horror as their friend (immortal Celestial Spirit or not) was destroyed was destroyed. "You bastard!" a teary-eyed Gray shouted in anger.

"You honestly care about what happened to him?" Mard Geer huffed. "Celestial Spirits are immortal, the only thing that can really kill them is staying outside of the Spirit World for too long. It is pointless to get upset over what happened to him."

Erza then growled, a sword being requiped into her left hand. "It doesn't matter what species they are, or if they are even immortal, I will never let anyone belittle my friends and go around unpunished."

Lucy's hands were clasped over her mouth, tears running down her cheeks as she saw Mard Geer destroy one of her spirits and closest friends before her eyes, even if the fight between Mard Geer and her friends had moved a distance away from where it started. Lucy felt so helpless, trapped in this dome shaped prison made of thorns while her friends were barely surviving against one of the strongest demons in the world.

Lucy's hands went down from her mouth to around her hips, clutching into fists. She wasn't helpless, she was a Fairy Tail wizard. She was a member of the strongest guild; a guild that always achieved the impossible.

But there was a huge problem: she had barely regained any magic power. The Celestial Spirit mage looked down at her keys; she could summon Cancer to cut the thorns, or she could summon Taurus to break them, but they would only last for a handful of seconds at the most before returning to the Celestial Spirit World with how low her magic is (and she wouldn't put it past Taurus to instead perv over her appearance then help).

But maybe...

Lucy closed her eyes and hummed focusing on her magic, or to be more precise, the magic that her dress was giving her: Aquarius' magic. "Please Aquarius, grant me the magic to save my friends once more." Lucy chanted quietly, trying to use the magic of her former Celestial Spirit.

Water surrounded the blonde female, surrounded her in the form of a dome, much like before she defeated Jackal earlier. Lucy's dome of water began to expand and expand, to the point where it was almost as big as Mard Geer's dome of thorns. Despite being liquid, the water surrounding Lucy started to press against the dome-shaped thorn prison holding the blonde, breaking it from the inside.

As Lucy was breaking out of the thorn prison, Mard Geer was gaining the upper hand; Erza swung her sword at the demon, but he managed to dodge by moving to the side. With a simple snap of his claws, Mard Geer summoned two small, thin, thorny vines to come out of the ground and wrap around Erza's wrists and pull her to the ground. The Requip mage tried to retaliate against the vines, but Mard Geer summoned two more small, thorny vines to wrap around Erza's ankles and another vine to wrap around Erza's abdomen.

Jellal used his magic to fly at Mard Geer at fast speeds, attempting to punch the Etherious. Mard Geer had, however, effortlessly caught Jellal's fist in his hand and pushed against the fist, sending Jellal onto his back.

Before the blue-haired Heavenly Body mage could get back up, a total of four small, thorny vines wrapped around Jellal's wrists and ankles with an additional vine wrapping around the former Wizard Saint's neck (miraculously not cutting into his neck).

Gray clasped his hands together, trying to channel his Ice Devil Slayer Magic to freeze the thorns and free his friends. But before Gray could fully channel his magic, a wide, thick vine wrapped around him and squeezed him tightly. The ice mage yelled in pain, the vine squeezing him like a snake, his bones starting to crack underneath the immense force.

Mard Geer raised his right claw towards the trapped Devil Slayer, putting his index and middle finger (or claws in his case) together while his other claws pressed against his palm, manoeuvring his claw around.

The thorny vine wrapped around Gray then raised into the air before repeatedly slamming his head against the ground until her passed out, his head bleeding from the constant damage it had received.

Mard Geer chuckled darkly as the humans (or at least three of them) that defeated him were now completely at his mercy. "Now you understand that Mard Geer is stronger than you; while you humans take time to regain your power, us demons regain our power much faster."

Mard Geer raised his right claw, a rose-shaped compound appearing above it.

"Now then, which of you should Mard Geer kill first...?" Mard Geer questioned himself, his eyes moving towards Gray, a maniacal grin growing on his face. "Yes, Mard Geer thinks that the biggest thorn in his side should die first."

Before Mard Geer could kill Gray, he heard the sound of thorns breaking apart. The self-entitled 'Underworld King' looked back at the thorn cage to see Lord E.N.D.'s 'demon queen' had broke her cage apart by creating a dome of water that was bigger than her cage.

Lucy gave a determined stare at Mard Geer as she used (what little remained of) her magic to make the water dome rush and surround Mard Geer in a sphere of water, similar to the Water Lock spell.

Lucy breathed deeply as she was using a lot of magic when she had barely any of it left. The blonde focused on the imprisoned demon, albeit her focus was ruined when two muscular arms suddenly wrapped around her.

"I love that my demon queen is such a strong Celestial Spirit mage." E.N.D. purred into Lucy's ear, although his voice started to sound more concerned almost instantaneously. "Although I advice that you stop using your magic, you barely have any left and it is extremely dangerous for humans when they use more magic than their body can supply."

Lucy had stopped using her magic, although more out of exhaustion than by E.N.D.'s command, releasing Mard Geer from the water sphere. Mard Geer flew towards E.N.D., seemingly forgetting about his plan to kill the humans in favour of his lord, bowing down respectfully before the demon king.

"My Lord," Mard Geer addressed E.N.D. formally. "Do you wish for Mard Geer to eliminate the human scum before you?"

Mard Geer and E.N.D. then heard the sound of ice shattering from where Gray, Erza and Jellal were. The two Etherious and Lucy (who was practically squeezed against E.N.D.'s bare chest as the fire demon held her in an iron-like grasp) looked towards the source of the sound to find that Gray had regained consciousness and froze the thorns that were holding him, Erza and Jellal.

Mard Geer growled as the Devil Slayer made his efforts be in vain. "Does Lord E.N.D. wish for Mard Geer to end the life of the _humans_?" Mard Geer asked, his voice filled with enough venom to kill an entire guild when he said 'humans'.

E.N.D. hummed, pondering on his answer. The mages were greatly low on their magic power, E.N.D. could just as much as blow on them and they'd fall down unconscious. Even if the three humans were at their full power only Gray would be the closest thing to a threat to him, purely because of the nature of his newly inherited magic, and even then he would only be to E.N.D. what a fly is to a lion.

E.N.D. then moved his eyes down to his demon queen, his angel. Gray and Erza were good friends towards his queen, would fight tooth and nail to save her if any dark mages or beasts or whatever would kidnap her for one reason or another (although if it was E.N.D.'s choice then whatever kidnapped her wouldn't be allowed to live, but apparently they don't kill their enemies. Wusses.)

Jellal, however, was different. He wasn't really a friend of his demon queen, he barely even interacted with her. Of course, knowing his demon queen, she would surely get sad if he was killed nevertheless.

His demon queen had a big heart that was compassionate and full of love, she would forgive basically anyone. You could hurt her, torture her, kill her friends in-front of her eyes, spit on her face and insult her in every way possible... and she probably would _still_ find it in herself to forgive you (not that E.N.D. would; he'd make you go through a slow and painful death that would take an entire year at the least). It was one of the things that E.N.D. loved most about his demon queen.

And E.N.D. had made an agreement with his demon queen that he'd let them (and the other humans in the ruins of Tartaros) live if she married him. E.N.D. wasn't above lying and betraying others, there were many times when he would backstab (literally in a few cases) humans and demons alike for his own gain, but Lucy was something different entirely. When it came to Lucy, E.N.D. was a demon of his word.

"Let them live, Mard Geer," E.N.D. ordered, still holding his demon queen close. "They are insignificant, they're far from being a threat. Besides, I have more important things to deal with."

E.N.D. didn't just mean marrying his demon queen (although that was at the top of the list), but also reviving the demons of Tartaros (and punishing most of them).

"So, Lucy," E.N.D. said, looking lovingly into his demon queen's chocolate brown eyes. "Are you ready to uphold your end of the bargain."

Lucy looked at E.N.D., despite his demon eyes and slightly darkened skin, he still looked like Natsu: he had the same chiselled features of Natsu's cheekbones, the same muscled features of the Dragon Slayer. Hell, there was something about those demon eyes that Lucy found... attractive. Dear God how Lucy prays that she isn't giving off any pheromones.

"Yes." Lucy answered, a bright red blush appearing on her face again as E.N.D. gently ran a claw down her hair as he pulled her face closer to his. As E.N.D.'s eyes started closing and his lips started parting, Lucy knew that he was going to kiss her again. And, for a reason she didn't understand (or at least hoped she didn't understand), Lucy found herself willing to kiss him again as well.

Before the Etherious and Celestial Spirit mage could share another moment of lip-on-lip (and tongue-on-tongue) action, they were both abruptly interrupted by the sound of a gunshot.

Lucy and E.N.D. looked to where the gunshot came from to find, much to E.N.D.'s ire, the rest of the Fairy Tail guild members (minus a few) as well as Igneel, Grandeeney, Metalicana, Skiadrum and Weisslogia... just peachy.

"Fairy Tail isn't done just yet!" Makarov yelled, a bunch of excited war cries coming from the mages behind him (at least from the uncouth male ones). "We are still ready for battle, no matter the enemy!"

E.N.D. growled, even if the old fart was clearly afraid and lying through his teeth, he knows that now he has to fight against the rest of Fairy Tail and five dragons... and he has to try to _not_ kill them. This was more effort than necessary to just marry the woman that he loves.

* * *

 _Extra Scene_

With great effort and willpower, his eyes opened to the battlefield that was as charred and burnt as his own body. He gasped in every breath, his lungs still burned a bit from the demon's fire he inhaled.

A sharp hiss rattled through his sharp teeth as he forced his right arm, the only arm of his that remained, to move and push him up and on his hind legs. He instantly tumbled under his own weight.

"Dammit!" he growled, once again forcing his own body to move and stand back up. He had the power to kill the strongest beings to ever live on the planet, he had magic that allowed him to consume all other forms of magic like a regular meal, and could annihilate mages that held this world on their fingers with just a flick of his wrist. And yet it was a demon of Zeref that left him in a near death state.

That atrocious demon had distracted him from his personal mission that lasted over four hundred years, and then did _this_ to him. Oh how he so greatly desired to get revenge on that demon, to ambush and kill him before he could cast a single spell.

However, as much as it wounded his pride, he knew that he was no longer in any condition to fight. His best option is to just fly away until he was ready to fight again.

He practically dragged his body into the distance, grimacing at the burned chunk of flesh that was once his own left arm.

Even with the faraway distance and smell of burning ground, he could still pick up the scent of E.N.D. and five of those abominable reptiles. If there was any sense in this world, then either E.N.D. would kill the dragons, the dragons would kill E.N.D., or both combatants would kill each other in their battle. He smirked at the thought of the last possibility, it would certainly make his mission much easier.

His wings flapped multiple times as he tried to carry his body, intense throbbing pain beating strongly were his wings and body connected, until he was finally lifted off the ground.

He managed to escape the battlefield decorated with the ruins of a destroyed dark guild unnoticed, a battle of tremendous proportions happening behind as he disappeared from sight. He flew over and past the vast expanse of the blue sea, further than the horizon itself, until her finally made it back to his mountain; his home.

He had found a mountain that was unattainable to neither man nor animal, only creatures as mighty as the dragons would be able to reach and live here. It was perfect, it provide shelter from the weather (even if the weather was only at most an annoyance) while simultaneously secluding him from the insects among him.

As soon as he entered the cave of his mountain, he transformed. He deceased in size, his scales returning into skin, his sharp teeth and nails becoming blunt again. His wings and tail disappeared, dark blue hair reappearing on his head as he turned back into a human, his clothes returning to him as inexplicably they disappeared.

As soon as he was no longer a dragon, he slumped down onto his back and sides; taking in as much air as possible through damaged lungs. He gazed over his skin, while it was always darkly tanned it never was completely black as burned flesh. A thought then occurred to him; he left his cloak at Tartaros! Crap, that was the same cloak he made out of the skin of the dragon that taught him his magic, the only possession of his that he was sentimental about!

He immediately got back up on his own two feet, ready to turn back into a dragon... only to fall under the pressure of his own weight the next second.

Shit!

No matter how hard he tried, no matter how much he commanded over his own body, he couldn't get back up. He let out an angered huff as he accepted defeat, the demon had left him in near death and he was lucky to escape.

He laid down on his side, it still completely surprised him that he, Acnologia; The Dragon That Consumes All Magic, was bested in battle.

* * *

 **Author's Note: And that wraps up chapter 2. Since we're now on the second chapter, I guess that I should tell you a secret about 'The Demon Queen of END' (don't worry, it's nothing controversial).**

 **You see, I actually finished writing the first chapter of this story on December 18th 2017, but I felt like it was too close to Christmas (or at least an upcoming Christmas) for me to post this definitely not-related-to-Christmas story, so I decided to postpone posting this story until sometime after Christmas.**

 **With that said, this will be added to 'The Demon Queen of END' a few days after it's finished (don't worry, chapter three and all chapters after it should be added as soon as I finished writing them.)**

 **Anyways, now that the cat's out of the bag, time to go onto other thoughts.**

 **First things first, I am so genuinely thankful for the favs and follows and reviews this fanfic has already gotten, it has more of those than any other of my fanfics (then again, I'm not really all that popular ^^;).**

 **Second of all is concerning E.N.D., as shown in the fic he can use the Thorn Curse, where you could say he is kinda stronger than Mard Geer. While E.N.D. is capable of making bigger thorns than Mard Geer, he is (currently) incapable of using either Rose Explosion or Prison Flower, as those two spells were created by Mard Geer (in TDQoE cannon, at least).**

 **Also, while the Flame Curse is E.N.D.'s primary Curse, he does have a few other Curses (two of which are also possessed by Tartaros demons, one being the Thorn Curse (obvi) and the other one is TBA (I'll leave it to you to guess what is the other Tartaros Curse that he possesses)).**

 **Now for the idea behind making Acnologia a Chaos Dragon Slayer. While it seems like a general idea throughout the fandom that that magic is the one Acnologia possesses, I was mainly inspired by _Calming the Chaos_ (an awesome Nalu story that I totally recommend), although this is my own little twist on the magic.**

 **In TDQoE, Chaos Dragon Slayer Magic is an absurdly powerful form of magic that allows the wielder to consume virtually any form of magic in existence (yeah, it's ridiculously OP ^^;).**

 **As for E.N.D.'s Flame Curse, it was inspired by _The Force of a Dragon_ (another fanfic that I recommend), although the idea of E.N.D. having more Curses than the Flame Curse was my own idea (more or less). Information for the Flame Curse (in this series) can be found down below.**

 **Now onto some original spells and forms of magic in both this chapter and the last ('cuz I forgot to put those in the last chapter (lol)).**

 **Original Gray spells:**

 **-Ice Devil's Double Purification Slash: The caster summons/creates two swords made out of Devil Slayer ice, a massive shard of the same ice quickly growing the area cut by the swords. This spell is particularly strong against demons.**

 **-Ice Devil's Zeroth Protection Shield: The caster summons/creates a giant shield made of Devil Slayer ice. While the strength of the shield is mostly based on caster's own power, it is extra effective at shielding against Curses.**

 **Original Mard Geer spells:**

 **-Thorn Hell: The caster summons hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny thorns that come out of the ground like an angry garden. Unlike most thorns casted by the Curse, these thorns wrap around their target instead of piercing through them. The spell is most likely used to keep targets hostage.**

 **Original Erza spells:**

 **-Netherworld Impact: By using Purgatory Armour, the caster is able to make a light-purple blade come from their weapon (usually a sword or spiked mace) and strike their target with tremendous force.**

 **Original Jellal spells:**

 **-Impact Comet: A stronger version of the 'Meteor' spell (thus requiring more magic power). The caster flies around via being surrounded their own magic. The yellow glow that surrounds the caster is bigger than the yellow glow used in 'Meteor', as it makes the caster go at faster speeds and with more strength. Additionally, the 'comet' leaves mini stars that burn whatever touch them.**

 **-Polaris A: A spell similar to Altairis. This spell is casted the same way as Altairis, except it's a yellow orb of intense heat (instead of gravity).**

 **This spell (or at least its name) is based on Polaris Aa, a yellow supergiant that is the main comprising star of the North Star (had to look it up on the internet, lol ^^;).**

 **Original Acnologia Spells and Magic:**

 **Chaos Dragon Slayer Magic: A Lost Magic that grants users the powers of a chaos dragon. Like all Dragon Slayer Magic's, this magic allows the wielder to eat their own element, which in this case is the chaos energies that can be found in all Magic. The spells casted by this magic are made of pure magical energies, giving it a high versatility of spells.**

 **-Steller Orbs: This spell surrounds the caster with ten small orbs of a golden colour, making them look like mini stars, which home in on the target, striking them with explosions of immense strength and force. If the caster is in a dragon form, the spell is seemingly stronger; with there being twenty golden orbs, as well as them being twice their usual size.**

 **-Heaven's Judgement: The spell causes a bright blue light to emit from the heavens above, which then comes down on the target as a bright blue beam that obliterates all that is targeted. The biggest drawback of this spell is that it not only requires gargantuan amounts of magic power, but it also has a small range.**

 **Original E.N.D. Spells and Curse:**

 **Flame Curse: This Curse allows the user to control the fires of Hell, fires that burn both the body and soul with intense heats. This Curse's prime feature is that of destruction, although users can also create fire constructs and even life (albeit extremely limited and temporary).**

 **-Flame Chains: The user is able to create a chain made of fire, although the chain gives off very little heat. The chains can also be connected to cuffs and chains made of fire, which don't give off very much heat either.**

 **-Burst: With a simple snap of their fingers (or claws) the user is able to surround their targets with small specks of fire that explode shortly thereafter. The explosions caused by this spell are stronger and hotter than explosions from the Bomb Curse.**

 **-Smoulder: A spell that is designed specifically to torture the target. The fire casted by this spell isn't necessarily strong or destructive, but instead burns the target until they are either ash, or the caster undoes the spell.**

 **-Gateway: By the snapping their fingers (or claws), the caster summons a portal made of fire which doesn't give off much heat. The portal takes the user to basically anywhere in the world, as well as can take them to 'Hell'. The 'Hell' that this spell can take the caster (and others) is really a double meaning; one is an area that is TBA, while the other is very deep underneath the ground.**

 **-Oni: The user can surround their arms, legs and even their entire body in a fire that is like an enlarged version of their normal selves, which is used to greatly increase their physical attacks.**

 **This spell is based on Oni (literally meaning 'Demon' and/or 'Ogre') of Japanese folklore; wicked yokai that are commonly depicted as having red or blue skin, along with wild hair, two or more horns and fang-like tusks. They are known to posses extreme strength and being the enemies of humanity.**

 **-Onibi: The user creates a fireball in their hands, which turns a blue-white and creates more until the total number of fire orbs is either twenty or thirty or somewhere between. These fire orbs give off very little heat, but instead hold a different danger, in which they start to drain their target of their life force.**

 **These fire orbs are actually an extension of the caster, thus they have a personality that could be considered similar to their caster, as they are able to recognise who their caster sees as a friend or enemy and see them as the same thing as the caster does.**

 **This spell is based on Onibi (literally meaning 'Demon fire'), yokai of Japanese folklore that appear very similarly in Japanese folklore as they do in this spell.**

 **-Inferno: The user is surrounded with flames of intense heats that grow bigger and wilder as they cast the spell. When the spell is properly casted, it is casted as a huge fire that comes out of the caster's mouth, engulfing and burning everything in its path until nothing remains. The range and destruction of this spell is absolutely tremendous, as it is strong enough to engulf and (nearly) kill a full grown dragon.**

 **Whew, and those are the spells. Jeez this author's note is going on for a long while. Anyways, I would like to thank for giving me my knowledge of Oni, Onibi and other yokai and sorts of Japanese folklore (it explains it better than I ever could, so I recommend you try checking it out).**


	3. Intermission

There were many different types of guild masters in Earth Land; some were comparable to a tyrant and would only care about their guild becoming the greatest magic guild in Fiore, others were more caring towards their mages and didn't see them as mere tools, et cetera.

Makarov Dreyar was the type of guild master to see his mages as his own children, and by extension saw their own children as his grandchildren, so their current situation was a living nightmare that threatened to rip apart his poor, aging, old heart. Even with the Nine Demon Gates defeated, the guild master of Tartaros remained afoot somewhere in the ruins of his own guild.

And to make matters worse Acnologia, the same dragon that nearly killed him and some of his children on Tenrou Island, was overhead. What was most fearful to the old man was that his 'children' were scattered around the ruins of the Dark Guild; where either of those two dangers could kill his 'children'.

It was then that a massive pillar of fire sprung upwards in the far distance, a massive amount of curse energy could be sensed coming from the pillar, even from the huge distance.

"What was that?!" Lisanna screamed, scared by the immense amounts of energy she sensed coming from the pillar. That energy was much like magic, except it held a certain aspect that just felt so... dark and evil. It felt like an overwhelming piece of pure hatred entered her soul for a second and left, and from the looks in their eyes, it seemed as though her guildmates felt it as well.

"E.N.D." Makarov murmured, terrified by the power he sensed; the old mage knew that the demon was meant to be the strongest creation of the most notorious, most dangerous mage that ever existed, but that power... it was leagues above even God Serena. "That evil power cannot be human...!"

The Fairy Tail mages looked at the terrified expression on their master's face, not really feeling all that much braver. Even the darkest forms of magic didn't hold that much evil in them; what they felt was akin to magic but made purely of negative emotions.

Hatred. Greed. Envy. Misery. Fear. Pessimism. Anguish. Suffering. They were emotions that were, in their entirety, loathsome.

"Warren, can you pick up anything from there?" Makarov asked in a way similar to a demand, his eyes darting towards the Telepathy mage as he asked the question. Warren was knocked out of his fear-induced trance upon hearing the command of his master, using his Telepathy magic like he was ordered shortly thereafter.

"I'm trying to, Master, but I can't find anything." Warren responded, his index and middle finger pressing on his forehead and his eyes peering at the area as he tried to use his Telepathy Magic to pick up anything, but to no avail. After a while of fruitless efforts, Warren let out a sigh of defeat, no longer trying to sense anything as he couldn't pick up even a single sound. "Sorry Master, but I can't find anything; it's like something or someone is using a form of magic to block out my Telepathy."

"If E.N.D. is released, then we have to get the others and retreat!" Wendy said, worried and scared for her fellow guild mates that were still fighting. If E.N.D. is stronger than any other Etherious, than he is an immense threat for even Fairy Tail.

"Retreat to what?" Droy asked, despondent. "Our guild is nothing more but ruins."

"Uh... dude," Jet whispered into the overweight Plant mage's ear. "Not so out loud." he finished, pointing inconspicuously towards a gloomy Elfman.

Makarov noticed from the corner of his eyes that Mest was looking up at the sky, a look of confusion on his face. The old guild master of Fairy Tail sighed quietly, knowing that after this war against Tartaros was over he would have to tell the mage about the truth: that he was a Fairy Tail mage who was infiltrating the Magic Council and using Memory Control to deceive everyone, including himself.

Makarov didn't really like that Mest used this magic on himself, but the Memory Control mage felt that it would help with the infiltration.

"What's the matter, Mest?" the short, old man asked with genuine care, somehow able to lay a hand on Mest's shoulder despite the height difference between them. Mest gave Makarov a glance before shuffling away until the guild master's hand was no longer on his shoulder, quickly muttering that his name was Doranbolt; Makarov sighed again as the mage claimed his alias as his real name, this deception of identity was the main reason why Makarov opposed to Mest manipulating his own memories.

"It's the dragons...!" Mest replied, looking back up to the sky with confused eyes, causing the surrounding members of Fairy Tail to look up at the sky to see what Mest was looking at. "They're just... floating there!"

The Fairy Tail mages and guild master were all, to an extent, bewildered by the sight of Acnologia and Igneel just flying there, their battle having ceased. It seemed as though Acnologia was watching something, his expression was completely impossible to see from the distance and angle that he was at (not that anyone was complaining because they would rather not have the attention of someone who could and would kill them), while Igneel was... weeping?

"Do you think they're stopping because they're afraid of E.N.D.?" Elfman asked. The thought sent a chill down everyone's spin; if E.N.D. is so powerful that even the dragons fear him (dragons of the same calibre as Igneel and Acnologia) then they were all truly screwed.

"We must evacuate Magnolia immediately!" Lisanna said, worried for not only her guild mates and the residents of Magnolia, but Fiore as a whole. "So many innocent civilians are in danger while E.N.D. is nearby."

"Even if we evacuate the town, the residents of Magnolia will still be in danger," Carla said, looking at the ground in a state of despair. "If E.N.D. is strong enough to match the dragons then we'll be lucky enough if we evacuate even a small number of them."

"Jeez, are ya just givin' up like that?" a rough voice said, gaining the attention of the mages and Exceed on the ruins of Tartaros. The owner of the rough voice was Gajeel, who was followed by Levy, who was carrying an unconscious Juvia. "What kind of Fairy Tail mages are ya?"

"Since when were you the optimist?" Jet asked, noting how beaten Gajeel looked with his multiple bruises, ruffled hair (more than usual, " _Why does the precious and elegant Levy always hang out with him instead of me?!_ ") and multiple scratches that covered his body. "And take a look at yourself, you can barely even stand on your two feet!"

Gajeel looked at his damaged body, coated with cuts and bruises. The Iron Dragon Slayer grunted, seemingly not giving a damn about his appearance.

"So?" Gajeel asked, crossing his arms over his chest, indifference in his gravelly voice. "We're Fairy Tail wizards, aren't we? I thought being in our guild meant that givin' up just wasn't somethin' that we do."

Wendy stared at the Iron Dragon Slayer with wide eyes, her scared expression turning into one of new-found determination.

"Gray-Sama..." Juvia mumbled as her unconscious self rested on the petite, blue-haired Solid Script mage's shoulders. "Juvia must see... her beloved... Gray-Sama...!"

"Don't worry Juvia, I'm more than sure that Gray is alright." Levy reassured the rain woman, patting her on the head even as she didn't change Juvia's position or her own. However, the bluenette instantly showed worry as her mind went to a certain blonde. "I just hope that Lu is alright, after that poisonous water Curse she just... disappeared."

Gajeel repressed a growl upon the sight of the short woman in obvious distress; usually whenever it was anyone else he would appear indifferent to the matter, but Levy... she was one of the few people in the world that he hated to see in distress.

"I'm sure Bunny Girl is fine, Shrimp." Gajeel said, patting Levy on the head (with Jet and Droy wailing as Levy gave the brutish Dragon Slayer a rather affectionate stare at the gesture). "Knowin' her, which I do at this point, Salamander isn't far away. And I can assure you from experience, Salamander ain't letting nothin' get away with hurtin' Bunny Girl."

"Love Rival...!" Juvia mumbled as she fidgeted slightly on Levy's shoulders. "Juvia must... protect Gray-Sama... before Love... Rival... sinks her claws... into Gray-Sama...! **_Love Rival!_** "

Everyone in the small vicinity sweat dropped as the Water mage was most likely thinking that Lucy disappeared to 'sink her claws' into Gray.

"We don't have time for this ridiculousness!" Mest shouted, gaining the attention of everyone in the same vicinity from Juvia. "Do you not realise that an all-powerful demon that could annihilate us with a snap of his fingers has awakened and will more than likely kill us?!"

"It doesn't matter how powerful he is, we can still beat him," those bold words had surprisingly came from the usually meek and bashful Wendy. Everyone looked at the little blue-haired girl in wide-eyed surprise, even Juvia had looked surprised for a second before passing out again. "Like Gajeel said, we're Fairy Tail mages, our magic is always stronger when we are with our friends. No matter how powerful our enemy and their magic is, the bonds of our guild, of our family, will always be stronger."

Everyone, even Carla, stared at the young Sky Dragon Slayer in surprise. Makarov then gave Wendy a kind and gentle smile.

"Ah, it seems as though Natsu is rubbing off on you, dear child." the old guild master said proudly. Shortly after saying that, Makarov's eyes became as wide as dinner plates when he heard his own words. "Oh dear _God_ , Natsu's rubbing off on Wendy! I'm going to be even more swamped in repair bills than I already am!"

The old man then fell down to his hands and knees as he wept at the thought of a teenage Wendy going on missions where she has to take down a monster or some bandits and ends up destroying buildings that leave him drowning in more repair bills than he already is.

"N-No Master, I won't be destroying anything on my missions." Wendy responded sheepishly. "Lucy and Carla have taught me to never go overboard. I'm not really that good of a fighter anyways."

Makarov had cheered up from his fear of even more repair bills (why did his brats have to be the most destructive creatures on the planet?! Surely he had to be cursed by some pissed off god for his mountains of bills) while Carla told the little girl holding her to not underestimate her own abilities.

"Hey, what about me?!" Gajeel yelled, offended that Wendy had seemingly not included him as a role model, before slinging his arms around the little girl's shoulders with a big grin like nothing happened. "Surely you haven't forgotten that I'm also less destructive than Salamander, haven't you?"

"You're not much better!" Makarov and Carla simultaneously yelled and pointed at the Iron Dragon Slayer angrily. Makarov yelled because while Gajeel _is_ less destructive than Natsu, that bar is so low that it is underground, and the master still got multiple bills where the raven-haired mage had unintentionally destroyed multiple buildings on a job.

Carla had yelled because not only was he also destructive, but most of the time he spent at the guild was either him brooding in the corner, being in a guild brawl (one of the multiple Fairy Tail things that the white-furred Exceed hoped that Wendy would never get involved with) or singing with his grating voice. Honestly Carla wasn't even all that ok with Wendy spending time with Natsu and his annoying tom-cat with an obsession for fish.

Gajeel just crossed his arms and grumbled angrily under his breath at the old man and Exceed's outburst while Levy patted his back in an effort to calm the Iron Dragon Slayer down.

Mest just sweat dropped at the sight before him, there's an all-powerful dragon above them that won't hesitate to kill them and an all-powerful demon has been awakened and most likely will kill them, and yet they still behave like a card deck full of jokers. The (former) Rune Knight felt annoyed that the guild would treat this completely serious situation like some run-of-the-mill mission, yet he also felt an uncanny feeling of nostalgia growing inside him as he watched the scene unfold in-front of him.

He felt a strange urge to smile and say something like 'That's the Fairy Tail I know.'

He had a problem, that's what he always told himself while he worked at the Magic Council. The Fairy Tail guild was full of scoundrels, they couldn't as much as breathe somewhere without causing massive wanton destruction. That was what the Council said a lot, especially after former Council member Siegrain turned out to be the (then) villainous Jellal Fernandes who played everyone like his pawns to use the R-System.

At least the Council members before then would take in consideration of the multiple Dark Guilds and dangerous monsters and beasts that the overly destructive mages had gotten out of their hair.

But the newer Council members weren't anywhere near as considerate as the former members were, to the point where they almost seemed obsessed with destroying the guild.

Despite believing the Fairy Tail guild to do more good than bad, Mest constantly had a feeling that there really were good people there. Whenever anyone who worked at the Magic Council would say anything about Fairy Tail and its mages being pure trash, Mest would feel an almost uncontrollable urge to argue against those words.

And of course the Memory Control mage would end up going to Fairy Tail's defence whenever the Council would unscrupulously try to get the guild disbanded and its mages arrested. Eventually the new Magic Council (could it still be called that when it was destroyed with its members dead?) confronted him about his constant protection of the guild.

When he admitted that he didn't know why he did that, they theorised that it was some form of Mind Control Magic that Fairy Tail was using on him.

The theory made Mest mad, he didn't know if his anger was directed towards Fairy Tail or the Magic Council, but in the end he agreed to their plan that would 'rightfully rid the world from the Fairy Tail scumbags'. The S-Class Trials were coming, in which where the Fairy Tail mages who would potentially become S-Class (as well as their partners in the trial) would go to the sacred Tenrou Island.

It would be perfect, the Council thought, only at the sacred island that belonged to the guild would they reveal the evil it really was.

So Mest had snuck into the guild and used his magic to trick everyone so he would go to Tenrou Island unprovoked. However, being in a building full of loud, alcohol-fuelled, insane mages who would start a brawl in the guild at the drop of a hat felt... normal.

It made absolutely no sense. Mest was a member of the Magic Council, a place that was always calm, quiet and meticulous in every area. The Fairy Tail guild was, on the other hand, absolute chaos. And Mest felt... perfectly fine, he actually felt more comfortable and at home there instead of at the Magic Council.

And so when Tenrou Island and the many mages on it were seemingly annihilated by Acnologia, Mest felt like absolute shit. Despite trying to reason with himself that it wasn't his fault, there was something about the thought that he aided in the destruction of Fairy Tail that made Mest feel like he just stabbed his closest friends and family in the back.

After seeing the new Council's indifference to the loss of lives, and being consumed by his own guilt, Mest left the Magic Council. For years the mage had spent life at a bar, drowning his sorrows in alcohol with what money he could find until Lahar got him to come back into the Council.

"Nevertheless," a disembodied and familiar voice said as multiple footsteps could be heard approaching the mages. Mest was taken out of his little trance as he looked towards the voice, as did everyone else in the proximity "If you're going to fight E.N.D. or evacuate Magnolia, you're going to need your friends."

This time the owner of the voice was Cana, who was followed by Macao, Wakaba, Laki, Romeo, Kinana, Alzack (with Asuka having what is basically a piggyback ride on him), Bisca and basically everyone else from the Fairy Tail guild.

The Fairy Tail mages' faces had brightened (even Gajeel smiled a little as the corners of his mouth turned upwards... although that may have been because Levy was hugging him excitedly).

However before the Fairy Tail mages had their little merry reunion, in the distance the horned, winged silhouette of E.N.D. (not that they could properly see him) had flown into the air and created a fireball that was thrice the size of the average human and threw it towards something else in distance, out of the sight of the humans who were now watching in fear.

Even if they didn't fully see the tremendous fireball hit its target (whatever it was has a low chance of survival), they could still feel the force of its impact alone.

"Crap, did E.N.D. just target one of our guild!?" Warren asked, shaking in fear of what he just witnessed, even if it was from a faraway distance. Fairy Tail mage, Max Alors peered towards where the Etherious once was and where he sent his fireball.

"We may have a chance against him." the Sandstorm mage said. "Natsu makes fires as big as that daily, we could probably win this."

"Don't get cocky, Sandy," Gajeel said, ignoring the beige-haired mage's offense at the nickname the Iron Dragon Slayer just called him. "Even though I couldn't see E.N.D that well, I could see from how quickly he created that fireball that it's just the tip of the iceberg. Besides, that overwhelming Curse Power we all felt earlier ago was definitely E.N.D.'s."

"Gray-Sama...!" Juvia mumbled. "Juvia... must..." Juvia became silent afterwards, having seemingly gone unconscious again.

"Hey where are Natsu and Gray anyways?" Romeo asked, hands on his hips, noticing that the Dragon Slayer and Ice-Make mage were absent from where the other mages were.

Gajeel grunted at the young Fire Magic user's question. "Last I saw Salamander, he went runnin' after his pops." the Iron Dragon Slayer answered. "And the last time I saw Ice Stripper he was apparently now a Devil Slayer and froze the same demon that put Laxus and his cavalcade bedridden."

"'Devil Slayer'?" Wakaba asked, bewildered, taking a smoke from a cigarette. "How did Gray become that?"

"Dunno, all that I know is that Ice Stripper somehow got a new magic and totalled a Demon Gate." Gajeel said, suddenly holding up an inexplicable yet innocuous bag that looked really soggy. "Don't know where he went, but at least we now have the blood needed to heal Thunder Farts and his posse."

"Last we saw him, he and Natsu were fighting Mard Geer." everyone turned to see, much to their surprise, that the Twin Dragons of Sabertooth were with them in the ruins of Tartaros. The one who spoke was Sting. "They were trying to stop Mard Geer from releasing E.N.D., we don't know what happened to them though; we were separated from them when fighting Jiemma."

"What are you two doing here?" Makarov asked, still relatively surprised on the Twin Dragons' appearance.

"We got a letter from Erza." Rogue answered. "We came as fast as we could... when Rufus finally deciphered her note." Upon saying that, the two Dragon Slayers looked embarrassed as they mentioned Erza's writing being nigh-unreadable. The Fairy Tail mages sweat dropped, most of them knowing about how Titania Erza's handwriting was best compared to a drawing made by a two year old. A drunken two year old.

"That's Erza for ya." a high-pitched voice said, being none other than the little blue Exceed named Happy, who was followed by Panther Lily, Frosch and Lector.

"Happy~!" Lisanna cooed, hugging the cat-like being before looking him in the eye. "Have you seen Lucy anywhere? No one seems to know where she is."

Happy looked into his surrogate mother's concerned eyes before shaking his head sideways sadly. "No, after me, Natsu and Lucy defeated one of the Nine Demon Gates, we received Warren's Telepathy message before Cube started shaking and ate us. After I was freed, Natsu and Lucy were gone and I had a mushroom on my head."

"Yes, we did start feeding the stomach of the demon house after Warren was telepathy hijacked." Laki said in her usual odd way of saying things, with most of her fellow Fairy Tail mages looking at her in confusion on her weirdly spoken words.

Meanwhile, Sting and Rogue were giving Lector and Frosch, respectively, a bone-crushing hug.

"We managed to reunite with Erza and Lector and Frosch and Minerva, who is no longer the big meanie that tortured and nearly killed Lucy." the blue Exceed continued, unaware that Sting and Rogue stopped hugging their Exceeds (not that he was aware of that anyways) and stared at him when he mentioned Minerva. "Then one of the Demon Gates tried to make us strangle ourselves with her Curse, but we were saved Mira."

Lisanna was admittedly scared when Happy mentioned that one of the Demon Gates tried to make him and her friends kill themselves, but then felt relief when he said that Big Sis Mira had saved them.

"Big Sis is so MAN!" Elfman yelled, partially forgetting about his previous melancholy.

"But then another Demon Gate tried to activate Face, but Erza kicked her butt, because she's Erza, and Face was destroyed by the dragons. After that Erza ran off to kick the butt of Tartaros' guild master." Happy finished.

"That's not exactly how it went." a soft voice said, being none other than Mirajane, who was followed by Meredy, who was helping Minerva stand and walk. Most of the mages present gasped when they saw Minerva, either because of fear of her or because of her horrific new appearance. Sting and Rogue, on the other hand, smiled when they saw the half-human, half-demon female.

"BIG SIS!" Elfman and Lisanna screamed in joy, the two Take Over siblings were about to hug their older sister but stopped when five (well, four technically) infamous and dangerous mages had appeared behind the three females.

"The Oración Seis!" the Fairy Tail mages screamed. The Fairy Tail members were about to attack the recently reformed (not that they were aware) mages until Mirajane went between the Fairy Tail mages and (now) Crime Sorcière mages, waving her arms up and down hurriedly while shaking her head sideways with the same speed and quickness, as in to tell her friends that they shouldn't attack the former villains.

"No wait, stop!" the eldest Strauss sibling screamed, stopping everyone. Mirajane hunched as her hands went on her knees as she regained her breath; even though she was recovering, using up all her magic and having her sensitivity to pain increased by Kyôka still took a bit of a toll on her.

"Have you knocked a few screws loose or somethin'!?" Gajeel shouted. "'Cause last time I checked, these guys were all on board with destroying the world!"

"Actually, they really helped Erza against the Demon Gate." Panther Lily said, sitting on the Iron Dragon Slayer's shoulder suddenly. "When Erza was facing trouble against the Demon Gate and her Curse, they, as well as Jellal and Meredy, had attacked the demon and helped Erza defeat her."

"Oh yeah." Happy said before sweat dropping in embarrassment. "They helped Erza, and Jellal went with Erza to defeat Tartaros' guild master."

Lisanna sweat-dropped at Happy's forgetfulness, it was at times like this that she wished that he spent more time with her than with his 'father'. Meanwhile, most of the Fairy Tail mages gave judgemental glares towards Cobra, Midnight, Racer and Angel (they didn't give any towards Hoteye since it he obviously stopped being evil years ago).

 _"Can we trust them? They've killed countless others in the past."_

 _"Their loose cannons, they won't hesitate to kill us when they feel like it."_

 _"Their in the same league as Tartaros, we can't trust them!"_

 _"Are they gonna help us or are they gonna just leave?"_

 _"If they think of backstabbin' us then I'll give 'em what for!"_

 _"The red head did help when the dragons attacked back at Crocus, but...!"_

 _"Frosch is hungry."_

These were among the countless words and voices spoken behind closed lips, inaudible to most beings in the world. But not to Cobra, with his hearing-based Sound Magic, he could hear not only the regular sounds of the world, but also the mind, soul, and the heart of whoever he's listening to. To Cobra, he could hear these silent sounds as clearly as if they were spoken.

"Well jeez, who knew the Fairy Tail guild could be so judgemental." Cobra scoffed, a smirk growing on his face as his one eye turning towards Mest. "Betcha didn't expect this outcome."

Mest looked at the mind-hearing 2nd generation Dragon Slayer with an emotion that was akin to scorn before crossing his arms over his chest and looking away with a huff. Even though Mest didn't really say anything, Cobra still heard what he wanted from Council tool's heart; his smirk turning into a full shit-eating grin.

Levy's eyes squinted towards the five former dark mages. "Isn't there meant to be a sixth member?" the bluenette asked, shuffling behind Gajeel when Angel and Racer looked towards her with unsettling grins. "I-I mean I remember that there was meant to be six of you but I only see five of you... Meredy notwithstanding."

The aforementioned pink-haired girl had suddenly looked uncomfortable while Cobra, Midnight, Angel and Racer and exchanged glances. "Cobra murdered him." Midnight explained, his voice having an unsettling tone of happiness in it. "It was a unanimous decision between us." the Reflector mage then gestured his hand towards the Angel mage, Slowing mage and Poison Dragon Slayer.

"We only committed our crimes because we believed it would lead to our prayers being granted." Racer said. "We believed that Brain would breathe life into our prayers, but we were only his pawns."

"Eliminating him was the only way for us to gain our freedom." Angel said, her hands on her hips. "If we fulfilled his plans then he would just get rid of us because we would be no use to him, he never had any intention of bringing our wishes into fruition."

"After being defeated by Jellal, we were given the opportunity to join Crime Sorcière." Midnight finished. "After a debate, we had joined his independent guild, each for our own reasons."

Most of the Fairy Tail mages became obviously uncomfortable at the fact that one of them killed their own comrade with the others not caring for the same comrade's death. Even if the victim was manipulating everyone to their own goals, it was just rather unsettling. "...Did you know about... that?" Lisanna asked her older sister, droplets of sweat rolling down the sides of her head.

"Uh... no, not really." Mirajane replied, a sweatdrop falling down her head. "I was just relieved that they helped Erza, I didn't really notice that or ask why one of them was completely missing."

 _"Sociopaths!"_

 _"I'm definitely not trusting them being behind my back."_

 _"Hopefully_ that _is just the last of their crimes."_

 _"Juvia must be reunited with Gray-sama."_

 _"They say we're judgemental, and yet they admit to killing one of their own without remorse."_

 _"Frosch wonders if there are any frog-shaped cookies left at home."_

Cobra shrugged nonchalantly at everyone's thoughts, expecting as much when they spilled the beans on that he killed Brain. However, one person's thoughts had caught his attention, and his eye had drifted towards a certain purple-haired Fairy Tail employee.

" _My prince,_ " Kinana thought excitedly, being one of the few people present who wasn't giving the Poison Dragon Slayer a glare of some sort. " _He's came back to save us, to save me."_

Cobra looked away, directing his one eye to the ground as his cheeks turned a shade of pink. Angel smirked at the love-struck Dragon Slayer, even as he turned his head up to glare at her. "Not. A. Fucking. Word." Cobra growled under his breath, too quiet for basically anyone else to hear apart from the white-haired female (and the other Dragon Slayers because of their above average hearing).

Minerva was no longer being supported by Meredy, the human-turned-demon now being able to stand on her own. With her one unaltered eye, the Territory mage noticed Sting and Rogue; a smile forming on her face as she saw her comrades were safe.

Comrades... yes, they are her comrades.

The blonde and dark-haired 3rd generation Dragon Slayers instantly gave her tight hug, knocking the air out of her. "Sting... Rogue..." Minerva wheezed, trying to get the two males off of her because their hug was like being squeezed by a snake. "Can't breathe... you're hugging too... tight."

The two Dragon Slayers let go of her when she told them that they were basically suffocating her; though they were still smiling, even as Minerva's hands were on her knees as she took deep breaths of air.

"We're glad to see that you're alright, M'lady." Rogue said to Minerva happily, patting her softly on the back.

"You're family is waiting for you back at Sabertooth." Sting finished, grinning at the human-turned-demon that he believed was still a member of his guild, unlike Jiemma. "Everyone misses you, even Yukino. We may be happy at Sabertooth, but Sabertooth's happiness will never be complete until you come back home."

Minerva felt a small pang in her heart at Sting's words; everyone was waiting for her? But... she had been so mean, so cruel...

The Territory mage started to sniffle. "Why?" Minerva asked, her voice breaking slightly, even though it was one word. Sting, Rogue and the approaching Lector and Frosch gave concerned looks towards the female as she fell down to her knees and tears left her uncovered eye. "Why would Sabertooth... why would everyone miss me when I've been nothing else but a heartless monster who revelled in the suffering of those beneath her. When I've been nothing but Minerva: the wicked daughter of Jiemma Orland?!"

"M'lady..." Sting and Rogue breathed, shocked at Minerva's breakdown, unaware that a orange-haired and white-haired mage were overhearing.

"But Minerva, you're not a monster." Lector said, tugging at Minerva's arms as her face had now resided in her palms. The human-turned-demon opened her eye to see the Exceed; even though her vision was blurred by her own tears, she could see Lector's tears and snot run down his face. "Your actions at the Grand Magic Games may have been immoral, but none of us were exactly nice when Jiemma was in charge of Sabertooth."

"When Jiemma was the guild master, Sabertooth was all about one thing: power." Rogue said, looking at Minerva in her teary eye. "Only the strongest were allowed in Sabertooth, only the strongest were allowed to thrive. Anyone who ever cried, who ever lost anything, deserved to be punished... because tears and loss were weakness, and weakness had no place in Sabertooth."

"And everything that wasn't Sabertooth was just an insect that deserved to be stomped on." Minerva uttered, already having known her fath... Jiemma's cruel philosophy for years.

"But Sabertooth is no longer about power." Frosch said, the frog onesie-wearing Exceed's snot and tears were running down his face as well. "Sting is now the guild master of Sabertooth, and now we're all a big happy family."

"And as both the guild master of Sabertooth and the big brother of our Sabertooth family," Sting said, grabbing the teary-eyed Territory mage by her shoulders and bringing her face to his own. "I decree that we return you to your home. Because it doesn't matter if you're related to Jiemma or not, you're Minerva of Sabertooth; you shouldn't be hanging around dark guilds like these, you should be with the family that loves you."

"The family that..." Minerva repeated. "...loves me?"

For a second or two, Minerva was no longer in her body... her current body, at least. She was still a very young child, maybe even a toddler, and she was being held in the arms of a woman. This woman... she stared at the little girl cradling in her arms with boundless love. This woman... that looked like Minerva herself. The woman that kissed Minerva goodnight before Minerva went to sleep, the woman that sung and hummed when cooking breakfast, the woman that always called Minerva her 'Little Angel'. The woman that always gave Minerva a warm smile of love, even as she turned pale and lay on her deathbed. The woman that was the complete opposite of Jiemma, Minerva's father; her mother.

"M'lady, are you alright?" Sting asked concerned, waving his hand in-front of Minerva's blank face.

"Lady Minerva, is something wrong?" Lector asked, shaking the woman's leg as best as he could with his little paws. "You're not responding to us."

"Frosch is worried too." Frosch said, the green Exceed also shaking Minerva's legs as best as he could.

Minerva's face scrunched as more tears left her eye, sobs coming out of her mouth before becoming full on out tears as she shoved her face into Sting's chest. "I..." Minerva whimpered, her nails digging into the White Dragon Slayer's back. "I want to go home... I want to go back to Sabertooth; I want to go back to my family!"

Sting and Rogue looked at each other before smiling; they're gonna bring Minerva home. The 3rd generation Dragon Slayers and their Exceed pals hugged the crying Territory, turning into a group hug.

It was... solace...

"Beautiful!" Richard cried, tears of joy flowing out of his eyes like rivers from the moment that he earwigged. The large man squeezed Sting, Minerva and Rogue in powerful hug (Lector and Frosch escaped because of their small sizes) that was much like the one that the Dragon Slayers gave Minerva earlier ago. "Even after what she did, even after leaving your guild and becoming a demon, you still see her as one of your own. Oh yes! Your devotion to each other is platonic love in its purest form. Oh yeah!"

"Calm down, Richard." Angel said, patting the Earth Magic user on the back. "If you keep squeezing them then you're gonna kill them." Richard's eyes widened, the orange-haired letting go of Sting, Rogue and Minerva and apologising for his crushing hug.

Angel chuckled slightly at the Earth mages actions, although her brow furrowed and her small smile turned to a frown as she remembered Sting's words.

' _Everyone misses you, even Yukino. We may be happy at Sabertooth...'_

' _...you, even Yukino. We may be happy...'_

 _'Yukino. Happy.'_

" _So you're still alive, my dear sister._ " Angel thought solemnly, her frown turning into a sad smile, a single tear escaping from one of her eyes as memories of a clumsy little girl who would always muck-up and get scolded by her mean parents, a clumsy little girl that she would always support because she loved her since the day she was born, had flashed in her head. " _At least she's happy, that's all that I really wanted._ "

Meredy approached Levy, her eyebrows slanted upwards near the brow and the corners of her lips pointing downwards. "Is Juvia alright?" the pink-haired Maguilty Sense mage asked, her voice showing the same concern for her friend as her expression.

"M... Meredy-san...?" the somewhat unconscious blunette asked, her right arm reaching out weakly to touch her friend on the head.

"Yes, Juvia," Meredy said, taking her friend's hand. "I'm here."

"Meredy-san!" Juvia said happily, prising one of her eyes open to see her friend before closing it again, the woman having became seemingly unconscious.

"Juvia got exposed to Magical Barrier Particles when fighting one of the Demon Gates, and then got poisoned by another Demon Gate." Levy explained, distress evident in her face and voice as she thought about what happened to her friend, her hand unconsciously reaching for Gajeel's. "She's not in the best condition, but she could be much worse."

"So what do we do?" Lisanna asked. "With E.N.D. released and being strong enough to create such a tremendous fireball without effort, he have to either fight or evacuate."

"Most of us aren't in a good condition to fight, and E.N.D. is meant to be stronger than the demons that put us in this position." Wakaba said, taking a smoke from his pipe. "We'll have to evacuate."

"But if we evacuate, E.N.D. will catch up with us anyways." Cana said, guzzling down an entire bottle of alcohol that she seemingly got out of nowhere. The brunette drank the seemingly full bottle empty. "I'd say we try kicking his ass, we _are_ Fairy Tail after all. And with Gray now being a 'Devil Slayer', as Gajeel puts it, we could stop him."

"But no one, not even the Dragon Slayers, could stop the dragons that attacked Crocus after the Grand Magic Games." Nab said, sweating in fear as all Dragon Slayers present (sans Wendy) growled at him for the implications of his words. "W-We don't know if Gray being a Devil Slayer could guarantee us a victory."

"Well Gajeel said that Gray killed one of the Demon Gates effortlessly." Levy said, ignoring that the Dragon Slayers (once again, sans Wendy) were glaring and growling at the Animal Possession mage that never takes even a single job.

Rogue seemed to snap out of his growl and glare as Levy mentioned how powerful Gray's new magic was against demons. "Before Sting and I were separated from Gray and Natsu, we saw Gray use his new 'Devil Slayer' Magic against Tartaros' guild master, Mard Geer." the Shadow Dragon Slayer added, his voice holding a sense of awe. "He even managed to do more damage towards the demon on his own than Sting, Natsu and I were able to do combined."

"Really?" Levy asked, her eyes, as well as the eyes of others, widening at Rogue's claim.

"Yes." Rogue answered. "Right, Sting?" the raven-haired waited for his comrade to respond, but found that the Dragon Slayer was still growling at Nab (who was now hiding behind other Fairy Tail mages). "Uh... Sting?"

The blonde Dragon Slayer was seemingly unaware of his friend's words, his red-furred Exceed partner sighing with sweatdrop. "I got this." Lector said, reaching into the inside of his vest and pulling out a picture of Yukino. It was a picture of the light blue-haired woman smiling on a sunny day, her hair was wavering to the left (from the perspective of the picture, that is) because of the slight breeze that was happening during the time the photo was taken, her eyes closed and her mouth in an open smile.

Sting's attention was taken away from the squirming mage, the White Dragon Slayer was now completely transfixed on the picture of Yukino, his eyes showing a fondness that was beyond that of simple friends. Inadvertently Rogue was also transfixed to the photo with the same fondness.

Angel noticed the photo of her younger sister, her eyes were wide as she saw how much Yukino had grown. Two or three or so tears of joy had run down her face from her eyes as she saw the most precious person in the world to her, older and happy. However, before she could be overwhelmed by her happiness, Angel noticed the fondess in the Twin Dragons of Sabertooth's eyes. At the sight of their exceptional fondness, Angel's face darkened as she began to mentally threaten them of anything they were planning to do to/with her little sister.

Cobra stopped growling when he heard Angel's thoughts, the maroon-haired Dragon Slayer sweated as he looked at his white-haired companion fearfully with his one remaining eye. He knew that she wasn't above murder and torture (hell, everyone in the Oración Seis was at one point), but what she was thinking was on a different level.

"What's she thinking about?" Midnight asked, noticing that Cobra was no longer growling at the random Fairy Tail mage (not that he really cared, he mostly just wanted to sleep) and was instead now looking at a glaring Angel.

"Trust me, you _don't_ want to know." the 2nd generation Dragon Slayer answered. Sometimes he regretted having the ability to hear the minds, hearts and souls of others.

Warren had also ended up hearing Angel's thoughts with his Telepathy Magic, the poor man being left as a hollow and soulless shell as he heard probably the most horrifying and sadistic thoughts he had ever read.

Lector flipped the picture of Yukino around by a 180 degree before putting it back into the hidden inner pocket of his blue vest. The two 3rd generation Dragon Slayers snapped out of their little trance, now focusing back on the Exceed. "Go on, Rogue." Lector said. "Ask him the question."

"Huh?" Sting asked. "Was something going on and I wasn't noticing?"

Rogue cleared his throat, gaining the blond's attention. Sting looked at his dark-haired friend with confusion. "We were talking about Gray's new magic that he used against Mard Geer."

"Oh yeah." Sting said, a look of amazement appearing on his face as he remembered what Gray did to Mard Geer. "It was awesome, Gray froze Mard Geer's thorns effortlessly and would've slayed him if Jiemma didn't intervene." Sting crossed his arms over his chest, smug and overconfident. "We've definitely won this!"

"If only the reality of our situation could be the same way you believe it to be, human." spoke a large, booming voice. A large dragon that flew towards the humans and Exceeds landed near them, taking a lot of them by surprise, especially since they somehow didn't notice him. The dragons body was mostly covered in red scales that looked like lava.

"You need not fear me, humans." Igneel said, reassuring the mages that were still freaking out at his sudden appearance. "I am a friend of humanity; I see humans as equals, not as food."

The screaming subsided as the humans that continued to freak out were finally calming down when they were assured that the dragon before them wouldn't try to eat them. Makarov approached the red dragon. "I presume you are Igneel." the Fairy Tail guild master said towards the towering being.

"Yes, I am, Makarov." Igneel responded, taking everyone by surprise when he showed knowledge of the Giant mages name, the aforementioned dragon taking them by even more surprise when he put one of his paws on his chest and bowed respectfully towards the short old man (or at least it looked like bowing, it was hard to tell since Igneel still towered over Makarov). "While it is a pleasure to meet you for real, I'm afraid that it won't last much longer."

"Hmm?" Makarov hummed, raising an eyebrow at the dragon as said dragon ceased his bow. "Why do you say that?"

Igneel, who no longer resumed his bow, looked troubled as he tried to conceive how he would tell the humans that he was going to die in a few hours. Luckily for him (more or less), someone else decided to answer his question.

"It's because we're dying." another large, booming voice said. The source of that voice, a giant white dragon, landed to the left Igneel; his landing causing a small that caused most of the humans to stumble. Sting's eyes widened upon the sight of the bearded dragon, recognising the appearance perfectly; it was his father, Weisslogia. "The magic keeping us alive is fading, so we are dying."

"Sting." Rogue whispered to his blond guild master. "Is that...?"

"Dad...!?" Sting muttered, the vacant and almost fear stricken look in his eyes as they focused only on Weisslogia made it seem as though he hadn't even heard Rogue speak.

Weisslogia's shadow started to wiggle before detaching from him to his left, a 'new' shadow forming underneath the dragon shortly after his 'old' one detached. "Alas, our final hours are nigh." spoke a voice from the shadow, a voice that only Rogue could recognise, the aforementioned Dragon Slayer having a reaction much like Sting's. "If only the world wasn't so cruel... we wouldn't be under our current conditions or circumstances."

The shadow then began to bulge, like a bubble was being blown out of it without departing. The 'bubble' was completely black, taking on the silhouetted shape of a dragon. The shadows cleared, revealing a dragon with scales as dark as the night sky; Skiadrum.

Needless to say, the Twin Dragons of Sabertooth were left with their eyes saucer-sized and mouths agape as the foster fathers that they thought that they killed with their own hands were standing before them, very much alive (for now).

"Now, now, don't be so pessimistic." a booming female voice said. Another gigantic white dragon landed near Igneel, this time to his right and it was female. Unlike Weisslogia and Igneel, she landed delicately like a feather from a small bird. Wendy's breathing came to a sudden halt, her blood almost draining from her face and her hold on Carla tightening, teardrops of joy leaking from her eyes. It was her mother, Grandeeney. "Even if we die, our spirit will forever live on in our children."

Wendy suddenly ran towards the sky dragon, the tears of joy continuing to leak from her eyes. "Grandeeney!" the little bluenette cried happily.

The gigantic female white dragon smiled softly at the approaching girl. "My daughter." Grandeeney said, stroking Wendy on the head with her paw, somehow not crushing or hurting the little girl as she did so. "How much you have grown... Everything I've seen and felt from within you as you went on your own journey... I'm so proud of you."

Another dragon had landed, this one to the right of Grandeeney, an organic giant with scales made of metal. Gajeel eyed the dragon before making a grunt and looking away, arms crossed over his chest.

The metal dragon scowled, taking offense from his son's insolence. "YOU LI'L SHIT!" Metalicana roared, slamming a torso-sized fist down on Gajeel, startling everyone except for the dragons (especially Levy and Meredy since they were the closest to the Iron Dragon Slayer), the dragon repeatidly slamming his fist on his son as he continued his rant. "YOU SEE ME AGAIN AFTER MANY YEARS AND YA DON'T GIVE ME AS MUCH AS A 'HELLO'? I KNEW I SHOULDN'T 'AVE PICKED A JACKASS LIKE YOU!"

After a few more seconds or so, Metalicana stopped slamming his fist on Gajeel, the only signs of life coming off from the Dragon Slayer being his extremely pained groans.

Grandeeney giggled at Metalicana's 'antics' (as she would call them), putting a paw on her lips as she tried to stifle her giggles (albeit not that much). "You're signature tough love always amuses me, Metalicana." she said, her amused face turning into a gentle smile. "But it wouldn't hurt to show some regular parental love every once in a while."

Metalicana leered slightly at Grandeeney, not that the Sky Dragon cared much. "This brat was already a li'l shit when I found 'im. So don't tell me how to raise 'im, Deeney." Metalicana responded, pointing a claw at Gajeel (who Wendy was trying to heal with her magic). "'Sides, ya know I'm tough on everyone, 'specially the ones I care 'bout most."

"If you two would stop messing 'round like a bunch of hatchlings," Igneel growled, his effort making Metalicana and Grandeeney turn there attention towards him. "You would notice that the humans are still in danger!"

"Yes," Skiadrum said. "E.N.D. is back."

Grandeeney and Metalicana began to look glum. "Right..." Grandeeney said, looking down at the ground as a tear slid down her face. "It's just... I wanted my reunion and last moments with my daughter to be happy."

"Da universe is cruel." Metalicana said, taking a look at Gajeel, who was starting to get back up as what remained of Wendy's Sky Dragon Slayer Magic healed him, before sighing and looking at Igneel. "Do ya want to tell 'em on yer own, or da want us ta-?"

"It is my burden." Igneel answered solemnly. Makarov raised an eyebrow, what burden was Igneel talking about? "E.N.D. is my former enemy and Natsu is my son, I will explain everything to them."

And so Igneel explained, that Natsu was a child born centuries ago who was killed by dragons, that Zeref resurrected Natsu as his most powerful demon, the consequences that Zeref suffered for his attempts at resurrecting Natsu, his battle against E.N.D., E.N.D. sealing himself in a book (although he omitted the reasoning why), him raising Natsu despite knowing he was E.N.D., the danger that Acnologia posed to dragons and what he did to both himself and his dying comrades, the Dragon Soul Technique that was used for both them and the Dragon Slayers they trained, and sending their children through the Eclipse Gate with them inside them.

However, like E.N.D., Igneel omitted the reason why Zeref resurrected Natsu.

All of the humans and Exceeds, even the ones that were members of the Oración Seis a few minutes ago, were silent as they processed the information of E.N.D.'s origins. "Oh bloody Hell!" Cana sweared, smashing a glass bottle that she somehow got her hands on against the ground, the liquid contents of the bottle seeping through its broken remains. "You're telling me that the guy who we grew up with was an all-powerful, genocidal demon this entire time?!"

Igneel nodded in response, which left Cana going off in a quiet mini-rant. "So you're tellin' me that I'm four fuckin' centuries old?!" Gajeel yelled, breaking out of his shock. The Iron Dragon Slayer's palm met his forehead. "I feel like a freakin' old geezer."

"You can say that again." Wakaba snickered under his breath.

Gajeel glared towards the Smoke Magic user, but before he could do anything else he was once again crushed under a giant fist of iron scales. "That is not your top priority, Li'l Shit!"

Gajeel growled. "Quit callin' me a li'l shit!"

"I would if you stopped bein' a li'l shit!" Metalicana growled in response.

"How the hell am I a li'l shit?!"

Metalicana leered at Gajeel, Iron Dragon and Iron Dragon Slayer glaring at each other. "Because only li'l shits hunt down and hurt their mates." Metalicana growled angrily at Gajeel, the aforementioned Iron Dragon Slayer going wide-eyed. "I 'ave been inside ya for years, boy, I had ta suffer through more than just seein' what you do in private on those lonely weekend nights." Gajeel was left as a blushing mess by Metalicana's words, which was made worse when his father gave Levy a happy smile that Gajeel had never had directed towards him. "On that topic, even though my son is a li'l shit, I still 'pect grandhatchlings; a total of two minimum."

Weisslogia whacked Metalicana on the head, the iron dragon growling in response. "Now isn't the time for thinking about grandhatchlings." the white dragon growled. "Acnologia and E.N.D. are still a threat to humanity, we don't have the time to think of the hatchlings of our hatchlings, especially with our fleeting lifespans."

"Verily." Skiadrum said, agreeing with his fellow dragon. The Shadow Dragon then looked at Igneel. "Do you know the status of out two enemies?"

"Yes." Igneel answered, though he looked a little glum. "The last that I saw Acnologia, he was flying towards E.N.D. to fight him. If my understanding of E.N.D.'s and Acnologia's nature is correct, they are fighting right now at this instant."

"Natsu..." Romeo said, still in shock of E.N.D.'s true identity.

"Hard to believe that we grew up with the strongest demon of the infamous Zeref." Mirajane said, comforting Lisanna, who Mirajane noticed to become obviously tense when Igneel revealed that Natsu was E.N.D. "Tartaros was already incredibly strong without E.N.D., if he really is their strongest...!" Mirajane didn't finish that sentence, the thought alone was terrifying.

"...You said that E.N.D. and Acnologia might be fighting right now." Makarov said to Igneel, the old man getting the dragon's attention. "How strong is E.N.D.?"

Igneel easily noticed the fear hidden in the guild master's voice, not that he blamed him. The old man was nearly _obliterated_ by Acnologia, and some of his strongest mages were also nearly obliterated by the same Dragon Slayer by the same attack. Igneel wouldn't put it past Makarov to still be unsettled from the dragon incident at Crocus; seeing multiple dragons destroy a kingdom with little to no restraint or difficulty would most certainly do that to someone who went through the incident.

"Very strong." Igneel answered, who began to look a little unsettled himself as he recalled his battle with E.N.D. "I was a fire dragon, I could consume E.N.D.'s flames but he couldn't consume mine; a fire demon could never consume the fires of a dragon unless he completely exhausted his own flames. I had the upper hand... err, paw in my case, I should of won. But we were both left licking our wounds after the battle."

Only the sound of the drifting wind could be heard as the humans, Exceeds and dragons were all silent. Until Mest spoke, that is.

"Why have you came here?" Mest asked hesitantly, feeling somewhat intimidated by being in the presence of five gigantic, all-powerful dragons. This feeling of intimidation wasn't help when the red dragon, Igneel, began to eye him.

Igneel had came to know Mest when he was inside Natsu, as the dragon had seen and saw everything that Natsu seen and saw, primarily the real Mest four years before his Magic Council infiltration.

Aside from its weakness to awareness, the prime principle of Memory Control is that you can only control the memories of those you target; meaning that you can't manipulate the memories of those you are unaware of, even if they are residing inside one of your targets. Igneel's memories were definitely different to Natsu's, the dragons far longer life being one of the prime reasons, and since Mest was unaware of Igneel when he manipulated Natsu's memories, Igneel was left unaffected by Mest's magic.

If he wanted to, he could reveal Mest's true identity to both himself and those around him.

Igneel saw the look in Makarov's eye, being both the man who requested Mest to do his infiltration and a minor user of Memory Control Magic himself he obviously knew of these principles of the magic and deduced that Igneel knew who Mest really was this entire time.

Through mere eye contact alone, Igneel and Makarov had a conversation of sorts; in which where Igneel understood Makarov's desire for him to keep it a secret, not that the dragon really had any intention of doing so anyways, and that he will reveal it himself sometime soon.

"I have a request." Igneel answered. "I request the aid of Fairy Tail. As E.N.D. and Acnologia battle, only one will come out of the fight victorious, whenever it is simply that they defeat their opponent or kill them."

"E.N.D. and Acnologia are both a threat to not only humanity, but the entire world. I am greatly weakened in my state between life and death, where I shift closer to the latter. And E.N.D. is far stronger than he was when I fought him those centuries ago. I don't doubt that the victor, whoever he may be, will be exhausted after the battle."

"I request that you help me defeat the victor; if he is E.N.D., do what you can to defeat him, but don't kill him. If he is Acnologia, kill him. That is my request."

"I assume that you also request our aid." Weisslogia said, motioning his paw towards the other dragons. "It is not your mission alone to eliminate Acnologia, we also have a goal to end him for good."

"Yes." Igneel answered, nodding his head as he did so. "I will not force you to help me, but I must stop Acnologia for once and for all, whenever it be on my own or with my friends. I just wish that if you join me, you won't kill E.N.D., just subdue him."

"Still see your own son in him and can no longer bear trying to kill him?" Grandeeney questioned, the red dragon nodding in response. Grandeeney giggled the same way she did when Metalicana showed Gajeel 'tough love'. "I've always known you as a big softie towards humans, but this really takes the cake." Grandeeney continued to giggle, even as Igneel scowled at her. "Snark aside, I would be the same way if my little Wendy turned into a demon."

The aforementioned blue-haired little girl looked uncomfortable at her foster mother's words, Grandeeney's sense of humour was always odd and unique, but never on this level.

"I wouldn't if ma li'l shit became a demon." Metalicana grunted, ignoring the yelling coming from Gajeel. "An enemy ta humanity is an enemy ta humanity, I'd kill ma li'l shit if he became an enemy."

Grandeeney giggled again, now leaning above the extra-grumpy-than-usual Dragon Slayer. "Don't take his words to heart." she whispered into Gajeel's ears, sounding amused. "He claims that he doesn't care about you, but I know that he would sacrifice his life in a heartbeat for your survival, whenever or not you become an evil demon." the female dragon let out another giggle. "But I know he's expecting grandhatchlings, even after he dies."

And with that said, both Gajeel and Levy were left blushing, much to Grandeeney's amusement. "He's already evil, really." Metalicana huffed, having heard Grandeeney's whisper with his dragon hearing. "If ya saw what this jackass did in 'is Phantom Lord days, you'd be understandin' my perspective."

"I already saw what he would be willing to do in his Phantom Lord days." Igneel said, his voice sounding calm with some annoyed undertones.

"Only some of it, Ig, only some." Metalicana responded, a detesting scowl on his face as he remembered the many actions Gajeel committed when he was a member of Phantom Lord. "I'ze, on da other paw, had fron' row seats of how this turd became even more of a piece a shit."

During the pseudo quarrel-ish thing going on between Igneel, Grandeeney and Metalicana, Sting and Rogue continued the look at Weisslogia and Skiadrum respectively.

Skiadrum let out a soft, sad sigh before facing towards his foster son. "I know it's a surprise to you, Ryos. Seeing me to be 'alive', for lack of a better word, after your many years of believing that you had killed me with your own to hands." the shadow dragon looked at his friend, Weisslogia, and his foster son, the white dragon looking back at his dragon friend. "And I see your friend/guild master is equally, if not more, surprised at the sight of his own father."

"You're... alive." Sting said to Weisslogia, tears in his eyes as he started to cry. "I killed you...! I killed you because you were sick and dying, because you told me to kill you!"

"Sting..." Weisslogia whispered, reaching out a paw towards the aforementioned Dragon Slayer in an attempted to comfort him with a pat on the head. To the dragon's surprise, as soon as his paw went near Sting, the White Dragon Slayer ran to the fore paw that remained on the ground and hugged it as best as he could while crying into it. Despite his shock, Weisslogia still comforted his son. "I know it's... surprising, seeing me alive again. I know you remember killing me, but as Igneel said, it was a fake memory; you never killed me, I was with you all along."

Skiadrum, who was watching the little reunion of sorts between Sting and Weisslogia, easily sensed his foster son approach him, and thus wasn't surprised when the Dragon Slayer touched one of his fore legs.

"Do you hate me now?" The Shadow Dragon asked, his monotone and matter-of-fact voice concealing his emotions, not looking at his son; he didn't have the heart to look at his own son in the eyes when he expected those same eyes to hold a hateful grudge. "Do you hate me because I altered your memories to make you think you killed me?"

"No." Rogue answered. Skiadrum looked down to see Rogue, tears at the edge of the Dragon Slayer's eyes. "When you found me, I was a young child who could barely walk and on the brink of death. It was because of your love of humans that you took me in, raised me, feed me, trained me and loved me as your son. I have came to learn to appreciate those that I hold dear, so I'm happy that I never killed you."

"Rogue..." Skiadrum stoked Rogue's head with one of the fingers one of his paws. "I'm still dying; with my soul ripped by Acnologia, I'm still going to die."

"The five of us are." Weisslogia said, referring to all of the dragons present. The White Dragon looked down at his foster son, the human looking up at him teary-eyed. "I wish we could have the time to talk about everything that happened, to talk about how much you've grown... but I must help Igneel; it is my personal duty in life to protect humans, so I must fight whenever it is Acnologia or E.N.D."

"B-but..." Sting whimpered, more tears leaking from his eyes. "You're my family...!"

"I know, but..." Weisslogia moved his eyes from Sting to Minerva, Lector and Frosch, all of whom were watching carefully. "I'm not your only family, you have many other family members waiting for you at your guild, you even have some of your family right here. And I know there is someone at your guild that you have deep feelings for."

The tears stopped falling from Sting's eyes as soon as his dad, who was living in him and definitely knew what he thought of a certain someone at his guild, said that, the blond turning into a blushing mess.

"Hey, Frosch," Lector whispered into his fellow Exceed's ear. "Do you think that dragons have a habit of embarrassing their children by pointing out their feelings towards others?"

"Yes." Frosch answered in a whisper back.

"You should heed my comrade's words, Rogue." Skiadrum said to his son. "Sabertooth is also your family, and I doubt that you're not thinking of a certain light blue-haired waiting at your guild."

Rogue was silent as he looked away from his father, a light shade of pink on his cheeks.

Skiadrum chuckled, at least he got one more happy moment with his son before oblivion. "I too will help Igneel; I made an oath to protect humanity to the best of my abilities."

Igneel made an acknowledging grunt of gratitude. "While I greatly disagree with your decisions to manipulate your own sons' memories to make them believe that they _killed_ you," Igneel growled as he mentioned the memory manipulation, not that Weisslogia or Skiadrum were surprised, or even startled. "I do appreciate that you will aid me."

Skiadrum and Weisslogia nodded. "We'd move Heaven and Earth Land for our children." the shadow dragon said.

"We are more than willing to fight whatever awaits us." Weisslogia added.

"BUT DON'T THINK THIS MEANS I'VE FORGOTTEN YOUR MEMORY MANIPULATING!" Igneel roared angrily towards the other two dragons, fire escaping from his mouth as he did so, startling a lot of the humans. "AFTER THIS IS OVER, I'M STILL GONNA HAVE A TALK WITH THE BOTH OF YOU ABOUT USING MEMORY CONTROL TO MAKE YOUR SONS THINK THEY KILLED YOU!"

Once again, Weisslogia and Skiadrum didn't look surprised or even startled by Igneel's action while Grandeeney and Metalicana looked amused. "Oh calm down, Ig," Metalicana said, not even making as much as a flinch when Igneel turned angry eyes towards him. "We'll be dead soon anyways, so after dat, ya can bitch an' moan at Weiss and Skia fer as much as yer want. Anyways, I'm helping ya too; got nuthin' better ta do."

"I'll be helping too." Grandeeney said, her usual smile on her face. "After all, I'd be a lousy friend if I didn't help you."

"I am thankful that you are all willing to help me." Igneel said.

"We're gonna die by sunrise, even if we don't fight E.N.D. or Acnologia, anyways." Grandeeney responded, amused. "So why not spend it with the same ol' crazy, death-tempting idiots that I call my best friends."

Wendy watched the dragons intently and, without even thinking her words through, spoke. "I'm coming too!"

Wendy's words were heard by everyone surrounding her, all eyes, human, Exceed and dragon alike, were on her. It was then that realization of both her words and centre of attention status had caught up with Wendy, the little blue-haired blushing in shyness.

"Are you certain of your decision, child?" Igneel asked, and for the first time ever Wendy had saw Grandeeney give a scornful expression towards someone; Igneel. "While I do enlist the aid of your guild, I fear that this may be a request too dangerous for a kid."

"Natsu is like a big brother to me," Wendy said, her shyness replaced with determination. "I am willing to fight E.N.D. if it means I can get my big brother back."

"Natsu would risk life and limb for all of us," Bisca said, also deciding that she would join in the battle. "I think it's time we helped him out for a change... even though it's us having to fight him."

"Fairy Tail fights for one another!"

"We never give up on our family!"

"If we're gonna have ta fight E.N.D. to get Natsu back... then so be it then...!"

"It's MANLY to help out anyone in need, especially someone as MANLY as a dragon!"

The former members of the Oración Seis watched and listened (particularly the latter) to the Fairy Tail mages as they decided to fight against E.N.D. "They're all willing to give their lives for one another." Racer observed. "They really do see each other as a family."

"Yeah, I see." Angel agreed, the white-haired female listening to the Fairy Tail mages' words. "They don't see each other as tools, they all care for one another. They are all willing to risk their lives for the safety of their guild mates. They're a real guild, not a group of misguided slaves being controlled by a dictator like Brain or bringing an end to the world because they lost the will to live."

"I can hear their souls, their hearts." Cobra said, the maroon-haired Dragon Slayer had his arms crossed over his chest as his one eye watched the multiple mages that he was listening to the souls of. "Their words are genuine... at least, mostly genuine."

"It's because their friendship is so close they're like family!" Richard cried in tears of joy. "Their bonds of friendship is so great that blood ties become irrelevant, and they see each other as one of their own; as one of their family! Oh yes!"

"Gihihihi! I've been wantin' to have a good excuse to beat Salamander black n' blue for a while now." Gajeel chuckled in a jokingly yet slightly dark manner, somewhat reminiscent of his days in Phantom Lord, cracking his chuckles. "And this seems like a _really_ good excuse."

"Since when did he ever need an excuse to suddenly beat up Natsu?" Macao whispered into Wakaba's ear.

"What do ya say, Shrimp?" Gajeel said as he looked at Levy, either somehow not hearing or caring about what Macao whispered to Wakaba. "Wanna help us beat up Salamander to... 'save' him?"

Before Levy could answer, she felt a giant yet gentle paw touch her. The petite girl looked at the claw to see that it belonged to Grandeeney.

"I've noticed that Juvia has poison flowing through her veins." the sky dragon said. "It's dangerous, but I should still be able to heal her from its effects, even in this weakened state I'm in."

Levy gently placed Juvia on the ground, Grandeeney's paw hovered over the unconscious Water user; a light green glow emitting from her paw as she used her Sky Dragon Slayer Magic to heal Juvia.

"I'm sorry Gajeel, but I'm going to have to decline." Levy answered, which seemed to startle the Iron Dragon Slayer for some reason. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to look for Lu; I'm worried that E.N.D. could kill or hurt her."

Igneel stiffened, a reaction that was easily noticed. "Is something wrong, Igneel?" Weisslogia asked, concern clear in the dragon's voice, gently placing a claw on the fire dragon's shoulder.

Igneel made hum-like sound in his throat before looking at Levy, even though it was Weisslogia that asked the Fire Dragon King the question. "You won't have to worry about E.N.D. hurting Lucy, Levy. If anything, Lucy is the only person who could be considered as being more safe now that E.N.D. has reawakened; even with my recent realization, I already know that E.N.D. would rather tear off his own skin and jump into a deep pit of salt and stay there than do so much as leave a scratch on Lucy's skin."

"You think so?" Skiadrum asked.

"I _know_ so." Igneel answered his shadow dragon friend. "If he didn't see her that way, he would have already killed her; and he would have killed Gray, Erza and Jellal as well."

Makarov raised an eye in confusion before a realization of fear hit him. "Wait, E.N.D. is near Lucy, Gray and Erza?!" the old man asked, horrified at the possibility of some of his 'children' being in danger.

"Yes." Igneel answered. "Lucy was never in danger of being hurt by E.N.D., but Gray, Erza and Jellal are only alive because of her."

"Wait," Weisslogia said, raising an eyebrow while lowering the other, "are you saying that Lucy is...?"

"E.N.D.'s mate." Igneel finished, knowing what Weisslogia's question would be. "Until recently, I had never known why E.N.D. sealed himself into a tome; the answer being a mystery to me. However, recently I learnt the reason why; whilst healing from our fight, E.N.D. had a premonition that he would meet a certain someone that he would care for dearly; his mate, his 'demon queen' as he calls her; this certain someone was Lucy Heartfilia."

"Love Rival...?" Juvia asked, waking up. The blue-haired water mage got back up on her feet, stumbling as she did so.

"You should be careful, Juvia." Grandeeney said as Levy and Meredy tried to help Juvia with standing. "Even though my magic has gotten rid of the Magical Barrier Particles, it will still take a while for your body to properly heal."

"Thank you, Grandeeney-san." Juvia thanked the giant, female dragon as she started to stand perfectly (or near perfectly) on her own. "But... what are E.N.D.'s plans with Lucy-san?"

"I... I don't know." Igneel answered. "All that I know is that E.N.D. agreed to spare Gray, Erza and Jellal's lives if she became his 'demon queen'."

Rogue's eyes suddenly widened in both surprise and a feeling of fear at a part of Igneel's words. "Wait... Lucy had to get E.N.D. to spare _Gray_?! As in that E.N.D. was too strong for Gray to win by himself?!" the Shadow Dragon Slayer asked in horrified shock, his uneasiness making Skiadrum feel sad at the sight of his son, adoptive or not, in distress. Igneel confirmed Rogue's suspicion with a nod of his head. "B-But Gray's now a Devil Slayer! He nearly defeated Mard Geer single-handedly, how could E.N.D. be able to bring Gray to a point where Lucy needed to make E.N.D. spare him?!"

"E.N.D. and Mard Geer are two different demons in many ways, such as that E.N.D. is far stronger than Mard Geer." Metalicana said, answering with an explanation for Igneel. "And Slayer Magic doesn't instantly grant the wielder da power to kill whatever their magic is made ta kill. Like how none of the Dragon Slayers were instantly able to kill the dragons at Crocus 'cause of their magic, a Devil Slayer can't instantly kill every demon."

The humans and Exceeds alike looked at Metalicana in confusion of his not-quite-explicit explanation.

"What my friend is saying," Grandeeney said, trying to explain Metalicana's words more clearly, "Is that the difference between E.N.D.'s power and Gray's power is so vast that Gray isn't strong enough to instantly be able to slay E.N.D."

"In a sense, imagine Slayer Magic as something that grants the user the power to eat their element as well as have a higher chance at defeating the creature their magic revolves around. Much like how a God Slayer or Dragon Slayer can't slay a god or dragon respectively without properly training themselves, a Devil Slayer needs to properly hone their magic to even have a chance at slaying E.N.D."

"He's really that strong?!" Makarov asked in disbelief.

"Well he can't fight Ig here and nearly win by bein' a weaklin'." Metalicana said, nudging his fire dragon friend with his elbow. "So, how ya feelin' 'bout having Lucky Lucy Heartfilia as yer daughter-in-law? I know she's got good hips for bearing grandhatchlings. Gihihihihihihi."

"So that's where Gajeel got his weird laugh from." Macao muttered to himself, unsurprisingly getting hit by an Iron Dragon's Club.

"Even though I don't know what E.N.D. plans to do with Lucy, I _do_ have a hypothesis of sorts," Igneel said, whenever he had or hadn't heard what Metalicana said being unknown, "I suspect that E.N.D. is planning on bringing back the days of old where the Etherious struck terror into the hearts of even the bravest of knights. In fact, I don't doubt that E.N.D. wishes to rule the world; with Lucy by his side of course, she _is_ his mate after all."

"Well either way, I guess we're gonna have to fight E.N.D." Cana said. "Not only is he trying to take away two members of our family, but he is kind of a threat to our family and beyond."

"I just hope that you don't accidently kill E.N.D. if you fight him." Igneel said.

"Don't worry, Fairy Tail doesn't kill their enemies." Makarov responded.

"Wait," Mest said abruptly, his voice holding a tone that would lead to an incredulous question, "you said that Gray, someone who now has a magic meant specifically for slaying demons, nearly died against E.N.D.! How do you expect people without that kind of magic to stand a chance."

"Fatigue." Igneel answered. "Even demons like the Etherious can become tired in battle, even though they don't need to eat, drink or sleep to survive. Even a weakling can beat a being of immense power as long as that being is exhausted, so you should have a chance against E.N.D. if he survives in his battle against Acnologia, which I hope is the case. Besides, I've been in Natsu throughout his entire experience in Fairy Tail, I genuinely believe that you can achieve the impossible."

"I concur." Grandeeney said in agreement.

"Same 'ere." Metalicana said, raising his paw.

Skiadrum and Weisslogia looked at each other, remembering the absolute beating that they not only witnessed but also, to an extent, felt when Natsu single-handedly defeated Sting and Rogue in the Grand Magic Games (something that they know Igneel will be smug about in the afterlife after he's done ranting about their decision to manipulate their sons' memories), before looking back at their dragon friends. "We'll take your word for it."

Makarov closed his eyes and hummed. "If E.N.D. really is Natsu, and if he really is planning on taking Lucy, then Fairy Tail must fight him, as he is attempting to take away not only one, but two members of our family...!" the old guild master said, his magic power emitting from his tiny body; a bright light came from his eyes as a small, yellow light flared around his body. "Even though he is technically Natsu of Fairy Tail, E.N.D. is ultimately an our enemy, and must be defeated."

Murmurs were shared between the members of Fairy Tail behind Makarov before turning into war cries. Makarov closed his eyes as he calmed down, his immense magic power that was surrounding him fading and concealing.

"I just hope that Natsu survives and we can get him back..." the Wizard Saint muttered to himself.

" _I feel the same way._ " Igneel said telepathically to Makarov, his keen dragon hearing picking up the old man's whisper, even with the loud war cries behind him.

Romeo looked down at the ground, squeezing his hands into fists, before looking at the dragons with determination. "Alright, I'll fight him! I'll fight E.N.D. and save Natsu and Lucy!"

"That's not going to happen, kid." Metalicana said bluntly, not really sympathetic about what he was talking about to Romeo, wagging one of his fingers/claws in front of the Rainbow Fire mage. "You're not fightin' E.N.D."

"What?!" Romeo yelled angrily. Sadly, the boy couldn't say anything else as his father decided to step into the conversation... and he wasn't exactly on Romeo's side.

"Now, now, son." Macao said in an annoying and somewhat patronising voice that got on Romeo's nerves, continuously patting his son on the head. "He's just an old and powerful dragon that's just looking out for you. If he thinks you're safer not fighting E.N.D., than you should the old, powerful, _wise_ dragon."

"Yer not fightin' either." Metalicana said, hurting Macao's pride and causing a smug grin to grow on Romeo's face. However, before Romeo could mock his dad by repeating his own words against him, Metalicana suddenly slammed a fist on Macao angrily. "An' don't call a dragon old in front of his face!"

"Well you _are_ kind of old." Grandeeney snickered. "Even if you don't include our time travel through the Eclipse Gate, you still are older than most humans could ever be unless they're immortal or have some powerful longevity."

"Why can't I fight?" Macao wept, having gotten back up from the slam like nothing, possibly ignoring or not noticing the pain because of hysterics. "I'm a strong mage, why can't I fight E.N.D.?!"

"For one, most of the mages in your guild that are stronger than you are also younger than you." Metalicana answered, once again bluntly, delivering another, more powerful, blow to Macao's pride. "And second and most important of all, yer both fire mages; do you think yer magic is gonna be useful against a fire demon with Fire Dragon Slayer Magic? E.N.D. has the power to eat yer flames twice over, so ya can't really be useful against him."

Romeo and Macao raised a hand, all of their fingers pressing into the palm with the exception of their index finger which pointed out, about to protest, but their voices died in their throats as the common sense and reasoning of Metalicana finally caught up with them.

"Metalicana does bring up a good problem, though." Weisslogia said. "E.N.D. does possess both Fire Devil Slayer Magic and Fire Dragon Slayer Magic, so all forms of Fire Magic are useless against him; unless if we have a Fire God Slayer, which we _don't_ have."

"That is a good and true point." Skiadrum said, agreeing with his fellow dragon. "Among that, I don't doubt that the residents of Magnolia _are_ curious and/or terrified of Cube falling nearby. I advise that we split into two teams; one to fight E.N.D. or Acnologia, the other to keep the residents of Magnolia safe and to evacuate them if needed."

Makarov started to think, keeping Magnolia safe was always one of Fairy Tail's top priorities, said priority having a relation to the guild's origins. Among that, if it is E.N.D. that they must fight, Fairy Tail's fire mages will be unable to help in a battle _against_ E.N.D.

"Some of us aren't even able to fight at all in our current conditions." Reedus said, becoming sheepish as the attention was brought onto him. "Sorry, but some of us are so beat-up that we can't get even close to landing a hit on Acnologia or E.N.D., if we could in the first place."

"I am a Sky Dragon, so I can use Sky Dragon Slayer Magic to help heal my comrade's wounds and refill their magic." Grandeeney said, although she didn't look smug or happy as she said so. If anything, the dragon actually looked a little glum. "Sadly though, that doesn't really help in the problem that Reedus brought up; in the past, my magic was so powerful that I could easily cure a town full of people infected with Magical Barrier Particles. However in my current state, my magic had dwindled in scope, so now can I can only heal a few of you and only to a limited extent."

"So we'll have to choose carefully who fights and who goes to Magnolia." Sting said.

"I'll go to Magnolia." Kinana said. "I don't really have any magic, so I can't help in a fight against Acnologia or E.N.D."

"Like I said earlier, I've been wantin' a good excuse to beat Salamander black n' blue for a while, so I'm willin' to fight E.N.D." Gajeel said, grinning. "And I've been wanting revenge on Acnologia for trying to kill us on Tenrou Island, so I'm still gonna fight."

"Some of my dearest and closest friends are in danger." Mirajane said. "And I'm still a mage of Fairy Tail, an S-Class mage of Fairy Tail, so it is my duty to help them; I'll fight."

"Fighting for your guild is MANLY!" Elfman yelled readily. "And as a real man, I'll fight for my guild! MAN!"

Makarov looked at the male Strauss sibling, the Wizard Saint had a feeling that, for the first time in a while, Elfman's talk about manliness was to hide his true reasons; that he felt guilty for trying and succeeding in blowing up the guild, and is going to fight for it to redeem himself in the guild's eyes. Although, in Makarov's eyes, Elfman has no need to redeem himself to the guild, as he only blown up the guild under the control of one of the Nine Demon Gates.

"Well I can't let my Big Brother Elf and Big Sister Mira fight for our guild mates without me." Lisanna said, determination in her eyes. "Besides, I feel partially responsible for what happened to the guild. Natsu and Lucy are my friends, I'm going to fight."

"I've already decided that I'm going." Wendy said. "I'm going to save Natsu, because he's like a big brother to me. And I'm going to save Lucy too, because she's like an older sister to me; I'm going to save my big brother and my big sister."

"I have to swallow my fears and put my all into fighting, I'm going to save Lu." Levy said, the petite blue-haired looking brave.

"I really owe it to my big-tittied friend, if it weren't for her I would have left Fairy Tail and never had told Gildarts that he was my dad." Cana said, tossing aside a bottle of alcohol and taking multiple cards from out of nowhere; the usually drunk brown-haired mage had a fierce and serious look in her eyes. "And after I used her and forgotten our friendship in my greedy desires... even after the Eclipse Celestial Spirits incident, I still feel like I owe her."

"Lucy-san may be Juvia's love rival for Gray-sama's affections, but Fairy Tail wouldn't feel right without her." Juvia said, some of the people nearby sweat-dropping at her delusion that Lucy sees Gray as something more than a friend. "Juvia's going to save Gray-sama and Love Rival!"

"We were requested by Erza to help Fairy Tail defeat Tartaros, so if we fight E.N.D. we're technically doing what we came here for." Sting said, pumping his fists in excitement. "And I can spend time with Weisslogia... what little that I have. And I can save Natsu and finally impress him! Three for the price of one; oh yeah, I'm all fired up now!"

"I'll also fight." Rogue said. "After all these years of thinking that Skiadrum was dead, because I killed him... I'll fight with him while he's still alive."

Minerva smiled softly at the Twin Dragon Slayers of Sabertooth, she felt grateful to have friends like them that could bring her back into the light that her complete asshole of a dad brought her out of. But she didn't have just Sting and Rogue to thank for bringing her out of her power-hungry lust; the one that made her not care if she was good or evil, just as long as she was strong and at the top; she had Erza to thank for her epiphany.

And right now Erza was at the risk of being killed by either E.N.D. or Acnologia, possibly. Now that she cared less about being the strongest and more about being good and atoning for her sins, she should start by helping Erza.

"I'll fight." Minerva said, just those two words, her voice monotonous as the human-demon hybrid stood back up, since she sat down after nearly being crushed by Richard when he hugged her and her friends. "I've done many heinous acts while in the darkness, some unforgivable, including joining Tartaros because of my power-hungry desires. If I'm going to repent, I should start by helping my friends defeat Acnologia... or E.N.D., depending on who it is."

Alzack remained silent as he thought out what he was going to do. After his quiet moment of silence, Alzack took Asuka off of his shoulders and put her in Bisca's arms. "Look after our daughter, Biscuit." the Guns Magic mage said, sounding serious, before kissing his green-haired wife on the lips.

Bisca's eyes widened as Alzack turned his back towards her, understanding what Alzack was intending to do. "Oh no you're not." Bisca said, grabbing her husband's arm. "You're not fighting Acnologia or E.N.D., not without me you're not."

"But-!"

"But nothing!" Bisca interrupted, glaring at Alzack, sending a chill up his spine. "I'm not only your marital partner, but I'm also your guild partner; I don't care if you're going with dragons and powerful mages, there's no way in hell that I'm letting you go on a dangerous mission without me!"

Alzack looked at his wife in the eyes, he recognised the fierce look in her eyes; there was nothing that he could say or do to stop her from helping him fight E.N.D. or Acnologia, nothing less than joining the group that will go to Magnolia.

Alzack sighed. "Guess I can't fight without you, can't I." Alzack said, a comedic tone in his voice as he smiled at Bisca.

"Y'know it, partner." Bisca replied before kissing Alzack on the lips. "I've always been with you when something dangerous happened to you, and I will always be with you when something dangerous happens to you, until the end of time."

"Love is the purest and most beautiful of all emotions." Richard said, having watched the moment between Alzack and Bisca, blushing as sparkles were sparkling around his head. "Oh yeah."

"So what do you think we should do?" Angel asked her fellow former Oración Seis members. "Should we help our new leader?"

The Oración Seis turned Crime Sorcière members had heard that Jellal was in danger of being killed by E.N.D. and/or Acnologia, the mages contemplating if they should help their blue-haired leader. "Well Tartaros had already broken the non-aggression pact of the Balam Alliance by attacking Dark Guilds under the control of the Oración Seis and Grimoire Heart, not that we're members of the former guild we comprised of anymore, which I already told Kyôka before we defeated her." Cobra answered. "'Sides, Pinky over there has already decided that she's going to help to help save Jellal."

After saying that, Cobra pointed a thumb towards Meredy, the Maguilty Sense mage deciding to join the team that would try to detain E.N.D. while Cobra was talking.

"I honestly would much prefer sleeping right now." Midnight said, emphasising his claim by yawning. "But we're now Crime Sorcière mages, so our job is to destroy every Dark Guild we come across. Seeing as we are at the remains of a still living Dark Guild, and we've already taken down a powerful member of this Dark Guild, it would be against the philosophy of our new guild to just run away or sleep."

"There is nothing wrong with running, even if it's running away." Racer remarked, the Slowing mage still having a fondness and protectiveness towards speed, even though the aforementioned fondness and protectiveness had dwindled during his time in prison. "We should just be fast and defeat E.N.D. and stop Tartaros."

"I guess we do owe it to Jellal for giving us this chance to redeem ourselves." Angel said. "And even though we are no longer members of the Oración Seis, we still need to teach them a lesson about attacking and destroying the guilds that were once under our control, a lesson that goes beyond just beating up one of their Nine Demon Gates."

"Aren't _we_ going to eventually attack and destroy guilds that were once under our control?" Racer asked, sweat-dropping.

"Just because we are now 'good' guys doesn't mean we can't be hypocrites or have double standards." Angel replied shamelessly. Racer was about to say something about that, but decided not to; if she was really able to think of something so dark and horrifying that Cobra didn't want to talk about it, he was better off not risking angering her. Besides, he already knows of how sadistic and cruel she can be when she wants to; why do so many women need to be so insane?!

Cobra snickered at Racer's mental comment about insane women, although he _really_ didn't want to remember what Angel was thinking about doing to those two Sabertooth Dragon Slayers, so he quickly tried to change his mind to something else before the memories started coming. "What do you think, Richard?" the mind hearing Poison Dragon Slayer asked the aforementioned Earth Magic mage, partially to distract him from remembering what he heard from his female comrade.

"I believe that we should help our blue-haired comrade. He showed us love, friendship and compassion by offering us to join his guild, and we should show our love, friendship and compassion to him by helping him. Oh yeah!" replied the large, orange-haired man, who started to unknowingly go into a preach. "We are all brought together by the power of love. A constant throughout the beginning and eventual end of time is that the good and selfless ideology will always triumph over evil, regardless of the circumstance. Oh yeah. Furthermore-"

"A simple yes or no would have sufficed." Midnight, Racer and Cobra interrupted, fearing that Richard's preaching would give them a headache.

"So we've all decided that we'll help Jellal." Angel said. "Not that the other option would work well for us, seeing that our reputation as five of the six members of the Oración Seis has left us infamous."

Cobra just shrugged before facing towards the dragons. "We'll fight too, kinda our job now that we are in Crime Sorcière. Plus we guess we have to save Jellal since we're in the same guild and he's in trouble."

"Oh yeah." Richard said in agreement.

Murmurs were heard from the pile of nameless, unimportant Fairy Tail mages that are known by basically no one outside of other mages in the guild, unsurprisingly they were murmurs of distrust, although the basis of the distrust was mostly from Angel's previously mentioned reputation of them being infamous. However, with his one eye, Cobra noticed Meredy smiling at the former members of the Oración Seis with small tears of joy around her eyes, a heartfelt whisper coming from her soul. " _Thank you._ "

Cobra just looked away, damn Jellal and Meredy building an older brother/little sister relationship.

"As the guild master of Fairy Tail, every member is seen as my children." Makarov said. "And much like how I see all members as my children, I see myself as their father; whenever they are related by blood or not."

"As their father, I will act when my children are harmed or kidnapped by someone, even if that someone is another one of my children. Despite everything I've heard, I still see Natsu and E.N.D. as two different beings, so even if E.N.D. is an enemy of Fairy Tail I bear no ill will towards Natsu. However, like a good father I mustn't stand on the sidelines throughout all of this."

"I won't kill E.N.D., that isn't the Fairy Tail way, but I will fight. Fairy Tail never gives up, and Fairy Tail is always willing to fight." Makarov finished, the old guild master looking at a Sandstorm mage and Wood-Make mage. "Max, Laki, do either of you think that you can fight? You two may not be as overly powerful as some of our other mages, but you two are still strong in your own right."

"I guess I'll fight, I was confident earlier." Max replied.

"I am okay with showing painful friendship towards changed guild mates." Laki answered, her odd words causing everyone around her to look at her weirdly.

"I think that's enough fighters." Grandeeney said, the female dragon channelling her Sky Dragon Slayer Magic into her paws. "I don't think my fractured magic can heal much more than those who've already decided to fight. Do those of you who will protect Magnolia think that you will be alright without any additional healing?"

"I think we'll be fine." Max said as multiple Fairy Tail mages started to head back to Magnolia.

"But I want to help Levy!" Jet and Droy whined.

"Beat it, losers!" Gajeel yelled, even though the Iron Dragon Slayer didn't exactly hate the two, he still got annoyed by their endless whining. The orange-haired and black-haired mages were about to whine again, but Gajeel hit them with an Iron Dragon's Club, hitting them. It seemed to be enough to convince Jet and Droy, as they got back up and walked off without another complaint.

"I can't believe that I'm not allowed to save Natsu and Lucy," Romeo whined as he was basically being pulled back to Magnolia by his dad. "Just because my magic won't work against E.N.D."

"Romeo!" Wendy called, the leaving Fire mage looking at the Sky Dragon Slayer who was staying to fight against E.N.D. or Acnologia with their friends. "Be safe."

Romeo blushed at the affection in the Sky Dragon Slayer's eyes. "S-Sure" Romeo stuttered as a answer.

"Kinana, do you think you could look after Asuka while we fight E.N.D.?" Alzack asked the purple-haired barmaid as she started to walk back with her comrades. Kinana was silent for a moment, before nodding. Bisca was going to hand her and Alzack's daughter to Kinana, but Asuka started to squirm for some reason.

"Is something wrong, Asuka?" Bisca asked.

"I don't want either of you two to go!" Asuka responded rather loudly, fidgeting in her mother's arms.

Why don't you want us to go?" Alzack asked, looking concerned at his daughter. "Mommy and Daddy will be alright, we have dragons on our side. And we're Fairy Tail mages, you won't have to worry about us."

"B-but E.N.D. is a really powerful demon." Asuka argued, tears coming out of her eyes. "The big red dragon couldn't beat him in the past, and Acnologia killed many dragons in the past. I don't want either of you to die, so please don't go, Mommy and Daddy!"

Alzack and Bisca's faces softened as they looked at their daughter, the two parents wiping the tears of off her crying face. "We'll be alright, Asuka," Bisca said sweetly as she tried to soothe her crying daughter. Asuka stopped crying, instead looking at her parents, her eyes still teary from her little crying fit. "We have many strong Fairy Tail mages with us, including the really powerful Moustache Man. And the dragons are still willing to fight."

Asuka looked away, the little girl made a little grumbling like sound in her throat. Alzack made a little frown before an idea came the to Guns Magic mage's head.

"You know, Asuka, if you believe in us then we'll definitely live." Alzack said, Asuka looking at him with wide eyes full of intrigue.

"R-really?" Asuka asked.

"Yes." Bisca answered, having caught on to Alzack's idea. "Fairy Tail is a guild built upon love, trust and friendship; if you believe in us, then your belief will make us stronger. So have faith in us, because we are your parents."

"Do you promise?" Asuka asked, her small eyes looking at her parents.

"We promise." Alzack and Bisca answered with as much certainty as they could muster, although there was some doubt in their voices, albeit this doubt wasn't noticed by Asuka, as she is still rather young.

"Ok." Asuka said, trusting her parents fully.

Minerva watched the Guns mages and the daughter, observing the love in their eyes towards their daughter; the absolute, unbreakable love in both of their eyes. The Territory mage felt some sort of emotion towards this that she wasn't quite sure of. Was it... jealousy? The two parents had shown their little girl love, Minerva only saw that in her mother, but never her father.

The two Fairy Tail mages didn't care that their daughter didn't have much magic power, since she is very young, they loved her all the same. If they were Jiemma, they would want her to be a powerful mage; no excuses, not even age. If they were Jiemma, they would physically and verbally hurt her if she had so much as shed a tear.

Was it possible that Minerva was jealous because except for the earliest years of her life she had never known the love of a parent?

" _Look at me, getting jealous of a little girl_." Minerva thought, a sad smile on her face as Kinana happily took Asuka from Bisca's arms. " _Getting jealous of a little girl... I truly am pathetic_."

"While you're taking things, take this." Gajeel said, handing Kinana a soggy bag that had a bit of a dark purple colour to it where it was soggy. "As you already know, this bag contains the demon blood that the pink-haired hag needs to heal Laxus and the Thunder Legion from the Magical Barrier Particles."

"Right, I'll take these to Porlyusica." Kinana said as she took the bag and ran to Magnolia with her friends.

"We're going to fight a really powerful enemy, so this will take a lot of what remains of my magical power." Grandeeney said as she consumed the air for power. "But I'm more than willing to do this. Sky Dragons Healing!"

Light green particles emitted from Grandeeney's paws, the light green particle began to surround the humans and Exceeds and the effects of Sky Dragon Slayer Magic began to activate. Wounds closing, bruises disappearing, and magical energy refuelling, the Sky Dragon Slayer Magic was healing and replenishing the humans and Exceeds alike.

"Damn, it's like I never got hit or used my Magic in the first place." Gajeel said, looking at his arms which no longer looked damaged in any way.

"Her Sky Dragon Slayer Magic works really fast." Racer said, admiring the fast speed that his Magic was replenishing and the damage to his body was becoming undone, both his magic power being exhausted and the damage to his body being resulted from his battle with Jellal, Rustyrose and Kyôka respectively. "And if there's one thing I admire, it's magic that works fast."

"Oh yeah." Richard agreed.

Wendy stared at her arm in amazement as all damage to it disappeared, all just from Grandeeney's magic. "Your magic is amazing, Grandeeney." Wendy said to her foster mother as she finished casting the Sky Dragon Slayer Magic spell, the female dragon sweating slightly and taking breaths as she used up a lot of magic power (at least a lot of magic power to her current self) in one go.

"And one day your magic will become just as amazing." Grandeeney replied, stroking Wendy on the head with one of her giant paws. "I've seen your potential and how far your power has grown over time, one day your Sky Dragon Slayer Magic will match and then surpass my own."

Wendy blushed under the little piece of praise that she got from the Sky Dragon that not only taught her magic, but also accounted as her foster mother.

As everyone who had Grandeeney's Sky Dragon Slayer Magic casted on them started to heal and feel rejuvenated by said magic, Metalicana noticed someone standing by. "What are you doing still standing 'ere? Shouldn't you be walkin' off to Magnolia with the others?"

The dragon's loud voice was heard, the attention of everyone present being diverted towards him and then to the person he was looking at. Mest, despite not being one of the people who said they'd fight E.N.D., had remained where he was, silent and poker-faced.

"Is something the matter?" Levy asked.

"Hey, Cobra, why is the Council Dog still here?" Racer whispered to Cobra, the Second Generation Dragon Slayer hearing his comrade perfectly.

"Revenge." Cobra whispered back as an answer.

"One of the demons of Tartaros destroyed the Magic Council, including my friend Lahar." Mest answered, a hint of anger in his voice and eyes. "I can't just walk away from Tartaros while their master is awake. Besides, I just have this weird feeling to help turn E.N.D. back into Natsu."

"Your Teleportation Magic could be of use in the battle we will be engaging in." Igneel said, the red dragon looking at the other individuals that will be in the fight. "Do you think we should let him fight with us?"

"We are letting the Exceeds fight with use because of the usefulness of their Aera Magic, although Panther Lily's mastery in swordsmanship is an added bonus." Makarov replied to Igneel before looking at Mest. "If you are willing to fight, than you may help us."

"I am willing to fight, and I am willing to help." Mest responded. "I'll help."

The humans, dragons and Exceeds made their way to where E.N.D. and/or Acnologia was speculated to be; Alzack and Bisca held hands tightly, silently and subconsciously hoping that they will be able to live to see their daughter grow up. Juvia was worried for the safety of her friends (especially Gray). Levy was squeezing Gajeel's hand without really realizing it, the Iron Dragon Slayer letting the blue-haired squeeze his hand.

And so on.

But what may have been notable was that Weisslogia had his eyes closed and was humming slightly, like he was focusing on doing something.

"What are you doing, Dad?" Sting asked, the blond Dragon Slayer noticing his foster father's little piece of odd behaviour; he just hoped that it wasn't some sign that the magic keeping Weisslogia alive was running out.

"I am using Telepathy to message some recruits for who we battle." The White Dragon answered to his student/foster son. "Nevertheless who it is that we are fighting, their help will be invaluable."

The humans, dragons and Exceeds made their way to where E.N.D. was, the demon king holding Lucy tightly in his arms. E.N.D. and Lucy were about to kiss, however Alzack used one of his guns to shoot a random bullet into the air, the gunshot gaining the attention of the Flame Curse demon and Celestial Spirit mage.

"Fairy Tail isn't done just yet!" Makarov yelled, although the fear of what E.N.D. could do to his 'children', and the fact that E.N.D. was by technicality one of them had started to become present in him and found a way into his voice. "We are still ready for battle, no matter the enemy!"

E.N.D. had growled in response, he would have to fight Fairy Tail and multiple dragons before he could take Lucy and marry her.

* * *

 **Author's Note: So first of all, in the last chapter I was trying to thank a site that had '.com' at the end of it, and if you write something and have '.com' at the end then it won't be saved on the document. So to find the site I was trying to thank in the last chapter, just write 'Yokai' and then write '.com' at the end of it and then you should find the site I was trying to thank.**

 **Now onto my thoughts about this chapter... it's kinda mixed.**

 **On one hand, I'm happy with some of the things I wrote in this, but on the other I'm not happy with how long this took me to write. I was originally hoping to get this chapter out by February... and here it is in middle-late April.**

 **Yeah, I'm sorry for making you all wait over two months (nearly three months) for a chapter where very little happens. This was originally going to be in the last chapter, between the scene where Mard Geer shows his true form and when E.N.D. and Acnologia fight, but it started to get long so I decided to use it for the third chapter.**

 **And when I started to write this as the third chapter, I intended it to include a battle of E.N.D. vs Fairy Tail (or at least the Fairy Tail members present)... and then this became so long that I decided that that should happen in the next chapter.**

 **Although there is some reasoning why this chapter took such a long time to make; first of all, I'm a slow writer and a bit of a procrastinator. Second, I'm not on my laptop 24/7, and even when I am on my laptop I'm not always writing.**

 **And lastly, this isn't the only fanfic I'm working on right now. I'm working on multiple fanfics right now, both stories and one-shots alike (and one that is a one-shot collection so it's technically both). And by multiple fanfics I mean a ton... like a fuck ton because I can't keep my imagination in my head so I end up writing them.**

 **And there were moments where I had writer's block and looked at the screen thinking 'Uh... what am I supposed to write now?' and started to work on my other fanfics.**

 **Kinda felt like I wrote myself into a hole with this chapter...**

 **Honestly, with the way things are going, I'll consider myself lucky if this story has a total of five or six or seven chapters by its one year anniversary.**

 **Also yeah, the anime-exclusive moment where Laxus fights Tempester doesn't happen in this fic (not that this fic hasn't already fiddled around with the actual cannon of Fairy Tail), so Gajeel got saved by Gray. I mostly did it because I just didn't know what to do with Laxus for this, sorry.**

 **Hopefully I'll be able to redeem myself in the next chapter, ta-ta.**


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